Shloka 20
Brāhmaṇa-māhātmya: Tārkṣya’s instruction on tapas, satya, and svadharma
Chapter 182
मनसा तात पर्येति क्रमशो विषयानिमान् | विषयायतनस्थो हि भूतात्मा क्षेत्रमास्थित:,तात! पाँचों विषयोंके आधारभूत पंचभूतोंसे बने हुए शरीरमें स्थित जीवात्मा इस शरीरमें स्थित हुआ ही मनके द्वारा क्रमशः इन पाँचों विषयोंका उपभोग करता है
manasā tāta paryeti kramaśo viṣayān imān | viṣayāyatana-stho hi bhūtātmā kṣetram āsthitaḥ ||
The serpent said: “Dear child, the embodied self, stationed in the field of the body—this body being the seat of the sense-objects—moves through these objects one after another by means of the mind, and thus experiences them in due sequence. The teaching is that enjoyment and bondage arise not merely from the objects themselves, but from the mind’s successive engagement with them while the self abides in the bodily ‘field.’”
सर्प उवाच
Educational Q&A
The self, while dwelling in the body as a ‘field’ of experience, engages sense-objects sequentially through the mind; therefore discipline of the mind is central to ethical restraint and freedom from attachment.
A serpent is instructing a listener (addressed as ‘tāta’) in a reflective, philosophical mode, explaining how embodied experience occurs through the mind’s movement among the sense-objects.