Shloka 29
Jvarotpatti — The Origin and Distribution of Jvara
Fever
अथवा सशरीरास्ते गुणा: सर्वे शरीरिणाम् । संश्रितास्तद् वियोगे हि सशरीरा न सन्ति ते
athavā saśarīrās te guṇāḥ sarve śarīriṇām | saṃśritās tad-viyoge hi saśarīrā na santi te ||
Ou encore : toutes ces qualités et facultés, avec le corps, dépendent de l’être incarné. Car lorsque le soi vivant s’en sépare, ni le corps ni ces principes liés au corps ne demeurent tels qu’auparavant. L’enseignement souligne que l’appareil psycho-physique est conditionné et périssable ; il faut donc relâcher l’identification au corps et à ses fonctions, en reconnaissant leur dépendance à l’égard du soi intérieur.
असित उवाच
Educational Q&A
The body and its operative faculties (guṇas in the sense of embodied constituents) are dependent on the presence of the indwelling self; when the self departs, the body and those functions no longer persist. Therefore one should not take the psycho-physical complex as the ultimate self.
Asita is explaining a metaphysical point within the Shānti Parva’s instruction: he argues that the constituents of embodied existence remain only so long as the living self is connected with the body; separation (death) reveals their contingent nature.