Shloka 4
अव्यक्त-गुण-पुरुषविवेकः | Avyakta, Guṇas, and Discrimination of Puruṣa
कोशकारो यथा<55त्मानं कीट: समवरुन्धति । सूत्रतन्तुगुणर्नित्यं तथायमगुणो गुणौ:
kośakāro yathātmānaṁ kīṭaḥ samavarundhati | sūtratantuguṇair nityaṁ tathāyam aguṇo guṇaiḥ ||
Vasiṣṭha said: Just as a silkworm, by the threads it itself produces, encloses and binds itself on every side, so too this Self—though in truth beyond all qualities—becomes bound by the very guṇas (modes of material nature) that it manifests. The teaching points to ethical vigilance: bondage is not imposed from outside alone, but is fashioned through one’s own habitual tendencies and identifications, and freedom begins with discerning the guṇas as not-Self.
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bondage is self-woven: the Self is intrinsically attributeless (aguṇa), yet through identification with the guṇas of prakṛti—habits, emotions, and mental dispositions it helps manifest—it experiences confinement. Discriminative knowledge (viveka) loosens this identification and points toward liberation.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on liberation, Vasiṣṭha uses a vivid analogy: like a silkworm trapped in its own cocoon, the embodied being becomes trapped by its own produced guṇas. The verse functions as a didactic image within a larger discourse on how saṁsāra arises and how it can be transcended.