Shloka 34
Vyaktāvyakta-Viveka and Nivṛtti as Paramā Gati
Manifest–Unmanifest Discrimination and the Supreme Path of Withdrawal
तद्धत् सोमगुणा जिद्ना गन्धस्तु पृथिवीगुण: । श्रोत्रं नभोगुणं चैव चक्षुरग्नेर्गुणस्तथा । स्पर्श वायुगुणं विद्यात् सर्वभूतेषु सर्वदा,जिह्ना जलका कार्य है, प्राणेन्द्रिय पृथ्वीका कार्य है, श्रवणेन्द्रिय आकाशका और नेत्रेन्द्रिय अग्निका कार्य है तथा सम्पूर्ण भूतोंमें त्वचा नामकी इन्द्रियको सदा वायुका कार्य समझना चाहिये
tad dhrāt somaguṇā jihvā gandhas tu pṛthivīguṇaḥ | śrotraṃ nabhoguṇaṃ caiva cakṣur agner guṇas tathā | sparśaṃ vāyuguṇaṃ vidyāt sarvabhūteṣu sarvadā ||
ビーシュマは言った。「舌はソーマに結びつく性質――味と滋液――を担うものと知るべきである。香りは地の性質であり、聴は虚空（ākāśa）の性質に属する。視はまた火の性質である。触は、あらゆる生きものにおいて常に、風の性質であると知るべきである。かくして諸感官は、諸元素の性質を通して働くと説かれ、身の本性を見分け、感覚への同一化から離れる道へと導く。」
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse maps each sense faculty to the dominant quality of a classical element—taste/tongue with Soma-like rasa, smell with earth, hearing with space, sight with fire, and touch with wind—so that one understands sensory experience as elemental and conditioned, not as the true Self.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira in philosophical discernment and dharma after the war. Here he explains a cosmological-psychological framework: how the senses operate through elemental qualities across all beings, supporting contemplation, restraint, and liberation-oriented understanding.