Shloka 31
अव्यक्त-गुण-पुरुषविवेकः | Avyakta, Guṇas, and Discrimination of Puruṣa
प्रकृति: कुरुते देवी भव॑ प्रलयमेव च । दिवसान्ते गुणानेतानभ्येत्यैको&वतिष्ठते
prakṛtiḥ kurute devī bhavaṃ pralayam eva ca | divasānte guṇān etān abhyetya eko ’vatiṣṭhate ||
Vasiṣṭha said: “Prakṛti—the divine power of nature—brings about both manifestation (becoming) and dissolution. Yet, at the end of the cycle, after these guṇas have been reabsorbed, the One alone remains established.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
Nature (prakṛti), constituted by the guṇas, is responsible for the cycles of manifestation and dissolution; when the guṇas subside at the end of the cycle, the ultimate One alone abides—pointing to a reality beyond changing qualities.
Vasiṣṭha is instructing on cosmological and philosophical principles: the world-process arises and ends through prakṛti’s guṇas, but the final ground of being is the One that remains when all qualities and transformations are withdrawn.