Shloka 5
Jvarotpatti — The Origin and Distribution of Jvara
Fever
तेभ्य: सृजति भूतानि काल आत्मप्रचोदित: । एतेभ्यो य: परं ब्रूयादसद् ब्रूयादसंशयम्
tebhyaḥ sṛjati bhūtāni kāla ātmapracoditaḥ | etebhyo yaḥ paraṃ brūyād asad brūyād asaṃśayam ||
Asita dijo: «De estos principios, el Tiempo—impulsado por su propia fuerza inherente—hace surgir a todos los seres. Quien hable de algo “superior” a ellos, sin duda, hablará de lo irreal».
असित उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse asserts a causal hierarchy in which beings arise from certain stated principles, with Time (kāla) functioning as the operative force. It warns that positing something ‘beyond’ these as a higher cause is to assert an unreality—i.e., to depart from what is being presented as the true explanatory framework.
In a didactic discourse within Śānti Parva, the sage Asita is explaining a cosmological/ontological account of how creation proceeds. He emphasizes Time as the effective agent and closes the point by rejecting speculative claims of a superior principle beyond the ones under discussion.