Shloka 13
Jarā-Mṛtyu-anatikrama: Janaka–Pañcaśikha-saṃvāda
Aging and Death Cannot Be Overstepped
सर्गप्रलयधर्मत्वादव्यक्त प्राहुरक्षरम् । तदेतद् गुणसर्गाय विकुर्वाणं पुन: पुन:,सृष्टि और प्रलय प्रकृतिका धर्म है। इसलिये प्रकृतिको अक्षर कहा गया है। वही प्रकृति महत्तत्त्व आदि गुणोंकी सृष्टिके लिये बारंबार विकारको प्राप्त होती है; इसलिये उसे क्षर भी कहा जाता है
sarga-pralaya-dharmatvād avyaktaṃ prāhur akṣaram | tad etad guṇa-sargāya vikurvāṇaṃ punaḥ punaḥ ||
Vasiṣṭha dijo: «Puesto que la creación y la disolución le son propias, lo Inmanifestado (Prakṛti) es llamado “akṣara”, lo imperecedero. Sin embargo, esa misma Prakṛti, al transformarse una y otra vez para proyectar los derivados de los guṇa—como mahat y los demás—se vuelve fundamento del cambio manifiesto; por ello también se la denomina “kṣara”, lo perecedero».
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse distinguishes two ways of speaking about Prakṛti (the Unmanifest): as akṣara because it persists as the underlying principle through cycles of creation and dissolution, and as kṣara because it repeatedly transforms to produce the manifest evolutes (mahat and others) driven by the guṇas.
In Śānti Parva’s philosophical instruction, Vasiṣṭha explains cosmological process and terminology: how the unmanifest ground is described as imperishable in itself, yet is also called perishable insofar as it becomes the changing world through repeated modification.