Shloka 37
अव्यक्त-गुण-पुरुषविवेकः | Avyakta, Guṇas, and Discrimination of Puruṣa
निस्तर्तव्यान्यथैतानि सर्वाणीति नराधिप । मन्यते<यं हाबुद्धत्वात् तथैव सुकृतान्यपि
vasiṣṭha uvāca |
nistartavyāny athaitāni sarvāṇīti narādhipa |
manyate ’yaṃ hābuddhatvāt tathaiva sukṛtāny api ||
Wahai raja manusia, karena semata-mata ketidakmengertian ia membayangkan bahwa semua keadaan dan pasangan lawan ini harus ‘diseberangi’ dan dihindari; bahkan terhadap kebajikannya pun ia berpikir demikian. Didorong oleh Prakṛti, pasangan-pasangan itu terus berulang; namun karena kebodohan, ia menganggapnya sebagai serangan atas ‘aku’ dan menjadi gelisah. Terikat pada Prakṛti, ia pun berkhayal: ‘Aku akan pergi ke alam para dewa untuk menikmati buah perbuatanku,’ dan ‘buah nyata dari tindakan baik dan buruk masa lampau harus kualami di sini’—dan oleh salah paham itu ia terbelenggu oleh duka.
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse critiques ignorance: a person misidentifies recurring pleasure–pain dualities and karmic outcomes as personal attacks and believes they must be forcibly ‘escaped.’ This mistaken self-notion (born of avidyā) sustains anxiety and bondage; wisdom sees these as natural recurrences within prakṛti and as karmic fruition, not as the true Self.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on liberation-oriented ethics and metaphysics, Vasiṣṭha addresses a king and explains how the embodied person, conjoined with prakṛti, forms wrong beliefs about suffering, merit, and heavenly enjoyment—thereby perpetuating sorrow and continued wandering.