Shloka 8
जनकस्य मोक्षमार्गप्रश्नः तथा पञ्चशिखोपदेश-प्रस्तावः | Janaka’s Path to Liberation: Prelude to Pañcaśikha’s Instruction
अव्यक्तनाभं व्यक्तारं विकारपरिमण्डलम् । क्षेत्रज्ञाधिष्ठितं चक्र स्निग्धाक्षं वर्तते ध्रुवम्
Bhīṣma uvāca: avyaktanābhaṃ vyaktāraṃ vikāraparimaṇḍalam | kṣetrajñādhiṣṭhitaṃ cakraṃ snigdhākṣaṃ vartate dhruvam ||
भीष्म ने कहा—यह संसार-चक्र ध्रुवतापूर्वक निरन्तर घूमता रहता है। अव्यक्त इसकी नाभि है, व्यक्त (देह-इन्द्रियाँ आदि) इसके अरे हैं, सुख-दुःख, इच्छा आदि विकार इसकी नेमि हैं, आसक्ति इसकी धुरी है; और क्षेत्रज्ञ (जीवात्मा) इस पर चालक बनकर अधिष्ठित है। इस प्रकार जन्म-मरण की धारा घूमती रहती है।
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents saṃsāra as a wheel driven by attachment: the unmanifest ground becomes manifest experience, producing changing states like pleasure, pain, and desire. The kṣetrajña (self) is implicated as the ‘driver’ so long as it identifies with the wheel; freedom lies in discerning this mechanism and loosening attachment.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction section, Bhishma continues advising Yudhiṣṭhira on liberation-oriented dharma. Here he uses a vivid metaphor—the wheel—to explain how embodied life revolves through birth and death under the forces of manifestation and mental modifications.