Shloka 18

Vimokṣa-niścaya: Pañcaśikha’s Analysis of Aggregates, Guṇas, and Tyāga (मोक्षनिर्णयः)

Devanagari script

अजितेन्द्रिय जीव अज्ञानवश सत्त्व, रज और तमसे मोहित हो निरन्तर चक्रकी तरह घूमते रहते हैं ।।

Transliteration

bhīṣma uvāca | ajitendriyo jīvo 'jñānavaśāt sattva-rajas-tamobhir mohito nityaṃ cakrakīva parivartate || tasmāt samyak parīkṣeta doṣān ajñāna-sambhavān | ajñāna-prabhavaṃ duḥkham ahaṃkāraṃ parityajet ||

Translation

Dijo Bhishma: El ser vivo que no ha conquistado los sentidos, impulsado por la ignorancia y engañado por sattva, rajas y tamas, gira incesantemente como una rueda. Por ello debe examinar con cuidado las faltas que nacen de la ignorancia y renunciar al sufrimiento y al sentido del yo (ahaṃkāra) que de esa ignorancia proceden.

Word by Word

• {'ajitendriyaḥ': 'one whose senses are unconquered

• lacking self-mastery', 'jīvaḥ': 'the individual living being

• embodied self', 'ajñānavaśāt': 'under the sway of ignorance', 'sattva': 'the guṇa of clarity, balance, illumination', 'rajas': 'the guṇa of passion, activity, restlessness', 'tamas': 'the guṇa of darkness, inertia, delusion', 'mohitaḥ': 'deluded, bewildered', 'nityam': 'constantly, perpetually', 'cakrakīva': 'like a wheel', 'parivartate': 'turns about, revolves

• continues in cyclic movement', 'tasmāt': 'therefore', 'samyak': 'properly, thoroughly, rightly', 'parīkṣeta': 'one should examine/investigate', 'doṣān': 'faults, defects, moral/spiritual blemishes', 'ajñāna-sambhavān': 'arising from ignorance', 'ajñāna-prabhavam': 'originating from ignorance', 'duḥkham': 'suffering, pain, distress', 'ahaṃkāram': 'egoism

• the ‘I’-notion, self-conceit', 'parityajet': 'one should abandon, renounce'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma (speaker)
• jīva (the living being)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Lack of sense-control keeps the jīva trapped in cyclic wandering under the delusion of the three guṇas. The remedy is discriminative inquiry: identify the faults born of ignorance and abandon the ego-sense and suffering that arise from it.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s instruction section, Bhīṣma continues advising Yudhiṣṭhira on inner discipline and liberation-oriented ethics, explaining why beings remain bound and what practical mental renunciation is required.