Shloka 3
जनक–सुलभा संवादः
Janaka–Sulabhā Dialogue on Mokṣa and Non-attachment
अजसं त्विह क्रीडार्थ विकरोति जनाधिप । अव्यक्तबोधनाच्चैव बुध्यमानं वदन्त्यपि
ajasaṃ tv iha krīḍārthaṃ vikaroti janādhipa | avyaktabodhanāc caiva budhyamānaṃ vadanty api ||
वसिष्ठ बोले—हे जनाधिप! यह जीवात्मा यहाँ क्रीड़ा (लीला) के हेतु स्वभावतः ही विकार को प्राप्त होता है। और अव्यक्त प्रकृति का बोध होने के कारण ऋषि-मुनि भी उसे ‘बुध्यमान’—ज्ञान की ओर उन्मुख—कहते हैं।
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames embodied change (vikāra) as a natural, almost playful movement of the jīva within worldly existence, while emphasizing that the jīva is distinguished by cognition—its capacity to apprehend the Unmanifest (avyakta/prakṛti). Hence sages call it ‘budhyamāna’, the self that is actively awakening/knowing.
Vasiṣṭha is instructing a ruler, explaining the nature of the living self in relation to prakṛti: why the jīva appears to transform in the world and how its defining mark is awareness, especially of the subtle, unmanifest ground of experience.