Shloka 9
अव्यक्त–प्रकृति–इन्द्रियविचारः
The Unmanifest, Prakṛtis, and the Sense-Complex
न भिद्यन्ते कृतात्मान आत्मप्रत्ययदर्शिन: । बुद्धिकर्मेन्द्रियाणां हि प्रमत्तो यो न बुद्धयते । शुभाशुभे प्रसक्तात्मा प्राप्नोति सुमहद् भयम्
na bhidyante kṛtātmāna ātmapratyayadarśinaḥ | buddhikarmendriyāṇāṃ hi pramatto yo na budhyate | śubhāśubhe prasaktātmā prāpnoti sumahad bhayam ||
Parāśara said: Those who have mastered themselves and directly perceive the certainty of the Self are not shaken by the play of auspicious and inauspicious results. But the person who, through heedlessness, does not reflect on the faults that arise through the intellect and the organs of action, and whose mind clings to what is “good” and “bad” as objects of attachment, comes to great fear.
पराशर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Self-realized, self-controlled people are not destabilized by ‘good’ or ‘bad’ outcomes, because their grounding is in the Self rather than in results. Heedlessness—failing to examine the moral consequences of what the intellect and organs of action do—combined with attachment to auspicious/inauspicious leads to bondage and therefore great fear.
Within the Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma and liberation, the sage Parāśara is teaching a listener about inner discipline: the contrast between the steady knower of the Self and the negligent person who remains attached to outcomes and thus suffers fear.