Shloka 11
कर्मनाशाभावः, गर्भे जीवप्रवेशः, आचारधर्मोपदेशः
Karma’s Non-Extinction, Jīva’s Entry into the Embryo, and Instruction on Conduct-Dharma
यथा च दीप: शरणे दीप्यमान: प्रकाशते । एवमेव शरीराणि प्रकाशयति चेतना,जिस प्रकार जलता हुआ दीपक समूचे घरमें प्रकाश फैलाता है, उसी प्रकार जीवकी चैतन्य शक्ति शरीरके सब अवयवोंको प्रकाशित करती है
yathā ca dīpaḥ śaraṇe dīpyamānaḥ prakāśate | evam eva śarīrāṇi prakāśayati cetanā ||
Just as a lamp, when kindled within a shelter (a house), illumines the whole interior, so too consciousness—the living principle—illumines the bodies, making all their limbs and functions manifest and operative. The teaching underscores that the body’s activity and awareness depend upon an inner sentience, not merely upon inert matter.
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
Consciousness (cetanā) is the illuminating principle that makes the body’s faculties and experiences manifest, just as a lamp reveals what is inside a house; the body by itself is inert without that inner sentience.
A brāhmaṇa speaker delivers a philosophical instruction using a familiar metaphor (a lamp lighting a dwelling) to explain how consciousness pervades and ‘lights up’ the embodied condition.