Shloka 30
अव्यक्त-गुण-पुरुषविवेकः | Avyakta, Guṇas, and Discrimination of Puruṣa
कभी यज्ञ करता और कराता, कभी वेद पढ़ता और पढ़ाता तथा कभी दान करता और प्रतिग्रह लेता है। इसी प्रकार वह दूसरे-दूसरे कार्य भी किया करता है ।।
janma-mṛtyu-vivāde ca tathā viśasane ’pi ca | śubhāśubha-mayaṁ sarvam etad āhuḥ kriyā-patham ||
Vasiṣṭha said: “At times he sacrifices and has others sacrifice; at times he reads the Vedas and teaches them; at times he gives, and at times he accepts gifts. In this way he also performs other kinds of work. In the cycle of birth and death, in disputes, and even in acts of violence, the wise say that all this belongs to the path of action (kriyāpatha), where deeds bear a mixture of auspicious and inauspicious results.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames worldly life as kriyāpatha—the path of action—where experiences and deeds (including birth, death, conflict, and even violence) are bound up with mixed moral consequences (śubha and aśubha). It highlights how action in saṁsāra tends to generate entangling results rather than pure freedom.
Vasiṣṭha is instructing the listener in a reflective, ethical-philosophical mode typical of the Śānti Parva, classifying various human conditions and behaviors—conflict and violence included—as part of the worldly course of karma, characterized by alternating or mixed outcomes.