Shloka 2
एतदेवं विकुर्वाणो बुध्यमानो न बुध्यते । गुणान् धारयते होष सृजत्याक्षिपते तदा,वास्तवमें ज्ञानसम्पन्न होनेपर भी इस प्रकार प्रकृतिके संसर्गसे विकारको प्राप्त हुआ जीवात्मा ब्रह्मको नहीं जान पाता। वह गुणोंको धारण करता है; अतः कर्तृत्वका अभिमान लेकर रचना और संहार किया करता है
etad evaṁ vikurvāṇo budhyamāno na budhyate | guṇān dhārayate hoṣa sṛjaty ākṣipate tadā ||
Vasiṣṭha said: Even while undergoing such transformations through contact with Nature (Prakṛti), the embodied self—though capable of understanding—fails to truly know Brahman. It upholds the guṇas; and then, seized by the sense of doership, it engages in creation and withdrawal (destruction).
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
Contact with Prakṛti and identification with the guṇas produces the false sense of agency. Even an intellectually awakened person may fail to realize Brahman if they cling to doership; liberation requires seeing the Self as distinct from guṇa-driven activity.
Vasiṣṭha is instructing the listener in a mokṣa-oriented discourse: he explains how the jīvātman, entangled with Nature’s qualities, mistakes guṇa-activity for the Self and therefore speaks and acts as a creator and destroyer instead of knowing Brahman.