Shloka 14
Adhyāya 314 — हिमवदाश्रमः, शक्तिक्षेपकथा, तथा स्वाध्यायविधिः
Himalayan Hermitage, the Myth of the Thrown Spear, and Rules of Vedic Study
जनकने पूछा--महामते! प्रकृति और पुरुष दोनों आदि-अन्तसे रहित, मूर्तिहीन और अचल हैं। दोनों अपने-अपने गुणमें स्थिर रहनेवाले और दोनों ही निर्गुण हैं ।। अग्राह्मावृषिशार्दटूल कथमेको हाचेतन: । चेतनावांस्तथा चैक: क्षेत्रज्ञ इति भाषितः,मुनिश्रेष्ठ! वे दोनों ही बुद्धि-अगोचर हैं। फिर इन दोनोंमेंसे एक प्रकृतिको आपने अचेतन क्यों बताया है? तथा दूसरेको चेतन एवं क्षेत्रज्ञ कैसे कहा है?
Janaka uvāca—Mahāmate! prakṛtiś ca puruṣaś ca ubhau anādi-nidhanau amūrtau acalau ca. ubhau sva-sva-guṇeṣu sthitau ubhau ca nirguṇau. agrāhyau munivarārdūla katham eko hy acetanaḥ? cetanavāṁs tathā caikaḥ kṣetrajña iti bhāṣitaḥ. muniśreṣṭha! ubhau buddhy-agocarau. kathaṁ tarhi etayoḥ ekāṁ prakṛtiṁ tvam acetanaṁ vadāsi, dvitīyaṁ ca cetanaṁ kṣetrajñaṁ ca?
Janaka said: “O great-minded sage! Both Prakṛti and Puruṣa are without beginning or end, formless and unmoving. Each abides in its own nature, and yet both are spoken of as beyond qualities. O tiger among seers, if both are beyond grasp and beyond the reach of intellect, why do you call one—Prakṛti—insentient, and the other sentient and the ‘knower of the field’ (kṣetrajña)? Explain, O best of sages, how this distinction is to be understood.”
जनक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a key philosophical problem: if both Prakṛti and Puruṣa are described as subtle, beginningless, and beyond ordinary cognition, on what basis is Prakṛti termed insentient while Puruṣa is termed sentient and the kṣetrajña (inner knower)? The teaching to be drawn is that ‘insentient vs. sentient’ is a functional distinction: Prakṛti is the objective principle that manifests body-mind and experiences, while Puruṣa is the witnessing consciousness that knows them.
In Śānti Parva’s instructional dialogue, King Janaka questions a sage’s exposition. He challenges the apparent inconsistency in describing both principles as beyond form and intellect, yet assigning consciousness to one and not the other, pressing the teacher to clarify the doctrinal distinction between Prakṛti and Puruṣa/kṣetrajña.