Shloka 3
ब्रह्मघोष-प्रवर्तनम्, अनध्याय-नियमः, वायु-मार्ग-वर्णनम्
Restoring Vedic Recitation, the Anadhyaya Rule, and the Taxonomy of Winds
गुणस्वभावस्त्वव्यक्तो गुणान् नैवातिवर्तते । उपयुंक्ते च तानेव स चैवाज्ञ: स्वभावत:,अव्यक्त प्रकृति स्वभावसे ही गुणवती है। वह गुणोंका कभी उल्लंघन नहीं कर सकती है। उन्हींको उपयोगमें लाती है और स्वभावसे ही ज्ञानरहित है
guṇasvabhāvas tv avyakto guṇān naivātivartate | upayuṅkte ca tān eva sa caivājñaḥ svabhāvataḥ ||
Yājñavalkya said: “The Unmanifest (avyakta) has a nature constituted by the guṇas; it never oversteps the guṇas. It employs only those very guṇas in its functioning, and by its own nature it is without knowledge.”
याज़्वल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Prakṛti (the unmanifest) is entirely constituted by the guṇas and functions only through them; it cannot transcend them and is itself non-cognitive. This implies that genuine knowledge is not a property of Prakṛti but pertains to the conscious principle (ātman/puruṣa).
In the didactic discourse of Śānti Parva, Yājñavalkya explains a Sāṅkhya-style distinction: the unmanifest Nature operates through its qualities and is inherently without knowledge, setting up a framework for understanding bondage and liberation through discriminative insight.