Shloka 21
Utkramaṇa-sthāna and Ariṣṭa-lakṣaṇa: Yājñavalkya’s Instruction on Departure Pathways and Mortality Signs
द्रव्याद् द्रव्यस्य निर्वृत्तिरिन्द्रियादिन्द्रियं तथा । देहाद् देहमवाप्रोति बीजाद बीज॑ तथैव च,जैसे बीजसे बीजकी उत्पत्ति होती है, उसी प्रकार द्रव्यसे द्रव्य, इन्द्रियसे इन्द्रिय तथा देहसे देहकी प्राप्ति होती है
dravyād dravyasya nirvṛttir indriyād indriyaṃ tathā | dehād deham avāpnoti bījād bījaṃ tathaiva ca ||
Vasiṣṭha said: “From substance, substance arises; from a sense-faculty, a sense-faculty likewise. From a body, one attains another body; and from a seed, a seed—just so.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
That effects arise in continuity with their causes: material conditions generate material outcomes, faculties condition faculties, and embodied existence leads to further embodiment—like seed producing seed. Ethically, it implies responsibility for the causal chain one initiates through actions and dispositions.
In Śānti Parva’s instructional discourse, the sage Vasiṣṭha is explaining a principle of origination and continuity (cause-and-effect) to clarify how embodied life and its instruments persist through corresponding causes, using the seed analogy to make the point vivid.