Shloka 18
Brāhmaṇa-māhātmya: Tārkṣya’s instruction on tapas, satya, and svadharma
Chapter 182
महामते! पन्नगश्रेष्ठ! मन विषयोंका एक ही साथ ग्रहण क्यों नहीं करता? इन उपर्युक्त सब बातोंको बताइये ।। सर्प उवाच यदात्मद्रव्यमायुष्मन् देहसंश्रयणान्वितम् । करणाधिष्ितं भोगानुपभुड्धक्ते यथाविधि,सर्पने कहा--आयुष्मन्! स्थूल, सूक्ष्म और कारण शरीरोंका आश्रय लेनेवाला और इन्द्रियोंसे युक्त जो आत्मा नामक द्रव्य है, वही विधिपूर्वक नाना प्रकारके भोगोंको भोगता है
sarpa uvāca | yad ātma-dravyaṁ āyuṣman deha-saṁśrayaṇānvitam | karaṇādhiṣṭhitaṁ bhogān upabhuṅkte yathā-vidhi ||
The serpent said: “O long-lived one, the self—an enduring substance—takes support in embodied existence and operates through the instruments of sense and mind. It is that very self which, in due order and according to the governing conditions, experiences the many kinds of enjoyments.”
सर्प उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse explains that the self (ātman), while embodied and functioning through the sense-instruments, is the experiencer of diverse pleasures and pains, and that such experience follows an ordered causality (yathā-vidhi)—implying discipline, conditions, and karmic governance rather than random indulgence.
In a dialogue where a serpent responds to a philosophical query about why the mind does not grasp all objects at once, the serpent frames the issue in terms of the embodied self operating through instruments (karaṇa) and therefore experiencing objects sequentially and lawfully, not simultaneously.