Shloka 3
जनक–सुलभा संवादः
Janaka–Sulabhā Dialogue on Mokṣa and Non-attachment
अजसं त्विह क्रीडार्थ विकरोति जनाधिप । अव्यक्तबोधनाच्चैव बुध्यमानं वदन्त्यपि,जनेश्वर! जीवात्मा इस जगतमें सदा क्रीड़ा करनेके लिये ही विकारको प्राप्त होता है। वह अव्यक्त प्रकृतिको जानता है, इसलिये ऋषि-मुनि उसे “बुध्यमान' कहते हैं
ajasaṃ tv iha krīḍārthaṃ vikaroti janādhipa | avyaktabodhanāc caiva budhyamānaṃ vadanty api ||
Vasiṣṭha said: “O lord of men, the jīva here, by its own natural impulse, undergoes modification for the sake of play (līlā). And because it has an awareness of the Unmanifest (prakṛti), the sages also describe it as ‘budhyamāna’—the one that is in the act of knowing/awakening.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames embodied change (vikāra) as a natural, almost playful movement of the jīva within worldly existence, while emphasizing that the jīva is distinguished by cognition—its capacity to apprehend the Unmanifest (avyakta/prakṛti). Hence sages call it ‘budhyamāna’, the self that is actively awakening/knowing.
Vasiṣṭha is instructing a ruler, explaining the nature of the living self in relation to prakṛti: why the jīva appears to transform in the world and how its defining mark is awareness, especially of the subtle, unmanifest ground of experience.