Shloka 45
Nārāyaṇasya Guhya-nāmāni Niruktāni (Etymologies of Nārāyaṇa’s Secret Epithets) / नारायणस्य गुह्यनामानि निरुक्तानि
इन्द्रियाणि च पञ्चैव तम: सत्त्वं रजस्तथा । इत्येष सप्तदशको राशिरव्यक्तसंज्ञक:
indriyāṇi ca pañcaiva tamaḥ sattvaṃ rajastathā | ityeṣa saptadaśako rāśiravyaktasaṃjñakaḥ ||
Nārada said: “The five sense-faculties, together with tamas, sattva, and rajas—these make up a group of seventeen, a total that is designated as ‘the Unmanifest’ (avyakta).”
नारद उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse classifies constituents of experience—sense-faculties and the three guṇas—into a counted aggregate (seventeen) and links that aggregate to the notion of the ‘Unmanifest’ (avyakta), encouraging a discriminative, analytical view of mind–matter as a basis for self-knowledge.
In Śānti Parva’s instructional setting, Nārada is explaining a philosophical enumeration (a Sāṅkhya-like analysis) to clarify how the world of faculties and qualities is structured and how it is conceptually traced back to an underlying unmanifest principle.