Shloka 1003
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
प्रश्लिष्टं चन जानन्ति यथा55प इव पांसव: । इसी तरह ये इन्द्रियाँ और विषय परस्पर एक-दूसरेसे मिल-जुलकर भी नहीं जान सकते। जैसे कि जल और धूल परस्पर मिलकर भी अपने सम्मिश्रणको नहीं जानते
praśliṣṭaṁ ca na jānanti yathā āpa iva pāṁsavaḥ |
Bhīṣma explains that even when two things are closely conjoined, they may still lack any awareness of that union. Just as water and dust mingle without ‘knowing’ their mixture, so too the sense-organs and their objects, though constantly coming into contact, do not possess self-aware knowledge of their own conjunction.
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Mere contact between the senses and their objects does not constitute true knowledge; awareness and discernment belong to the conscious knower, so one should cultivate discrimination rather than identify with sensory experience.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing on inner discipline and right understanding; here he uses the image of water mixed with dust to illustrate that the senses and their objects, though conjoined, are not self-aware and cannot ‘know’ their own mixture.