Shloka 61
सर्गभेदाः — अविद्या, स्रोतोभेदाः, नव सर्गाः, देवासुरादिसृष्टिः, वेद-यज्ञप्रादुर्भावः
हिंस्राहिंस्रे मृदुक्रूरे धर्माधर्माव् ऋतानृते तद्भाविताः प्रपद्यन्ते तस्मात् तत् तस्य रोचते
hiṃsrāhiṃsre mṛdukrūre dharmādharmāv ṛtānṛte tadbhāvitāḥ prapadyante tasmāt tat tasya rocate
Whether in violence or non-violence, in gentleness or cruelty, in dharma or adharma, in truth or falsehood—beings turn toward the very mode by which their inner nature has been shaped; therefore what accords with their formed disposition becomes pleasing to them.
Sage Parāśara
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: How beings come to prefer dharma/adharma and other contrary dispositions based on inner formation (bhāvanā/saṃskāra).
Teaching: Ethical
Quality: authoritative
Concept: Beings gravitate toward violence/non-violence, dharma/adharma, truth/falsehood according to the inner dispositions formed by prior conditioning, and thus they find pleasing what matches their saṃskāra.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Cultivate sattvic habits (truthfulness, compassion, restraint) through repeated practice so that dharma becomes naturally pleasing.
Vishishtadvaita: Moral agency operates within a divinely ordered world where jīvas accrue dispositions (saṃskāras) and are guided toward right alignment through disciplined choice.
Vishnu Form: Para-Brahman
FAQs
The verse frames truth (ṛta) as alignment with cosmic order and falsehood (anṛta) as deviation; beings tend to choose whichever they have habitually internalized.
He explains it through conditioning: a person becomes “imbued” with a pattern through repeated choices and then naturally finds that same pattern agreeable.
Implicitly, Vishnu stands as the sustaining order behind dharma and ṛta; the verse highlights how far beings align with or drift from that sustaining cosmic harmony through cultivated disposition.