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 ||
असित बोले—इन्हीं से काल, अपनी ही प्रेरणा से, समस्त भूतों की सृष्टि करता है। जो इनसे परे किसी तत्त्व की बात कहे, वह निःसंदेह असत्य कहता है।
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.