Shloka 53

Devanagari script

अतपास्तप आत्मानमगतिग्गतिमात्मन: । अभवो भवमात्मानमभयो भयमात्मन:,वह कभी तप नहीं करता तो भी अपनेको तपस्वी मानता है। कहीं गमन नहीं करता तो भी अपनेको आने-जानेवाला समझता है। संसाररहित होकर भी अपनेको संसारी और निर्भय होकर भी अपनेको भयभीत मानता है। यद्यपि वह अक्षर (अविनाशी) है तो भी अपनेको क्षर (नाशवान) समझता है तथा बुद्धिसे परे होनेपर भी बुद्धिमत्ताका अभिमान रखता है

Transliteration

atapās tapa ātmānam agatiṁ gatim ātmanaḥ | abhavo bhavam ātmānam abhayo bhayam ātmanaḥ ||

Translation

ヴァシシュタは言った。「苦行（tapas）を行わぬのに、苦行者だと思い込む。真にどこへも行かぬのに、旅人だと空想する。世俗の生成（bhava）を離れているのに、世に縛られていると取る。無畏であるのに、恐れていると信じる。この教えは、心が真我を誤って同一視する力—本来属さぬ性質を投影する力—を示し、その虚偽の自己観念によって、無用の束縛と苦が作り出されることを明らかにする。」

Word by Word

अतपाःone who does not perform austerity (non-ascetic)

तपःausterity, penance

आत्मानम्self

अगतिम्non-going, lack of movement

गतिम्going, movement

आत्मनःof oneself

अभवःnon-existence; being without worldly becoming

भवम्worldly existence, becoming

आत्मानम्self

अभयःfearless

भयम्fear

आत्मनःof oneself

Speaker

वसिष्ठ उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vasiṣṭha

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse teaches that bondage often arises from misidentification: the mind attributes to the Self qualities it does not possess (austerity/non-austerity, motion/non-motion, worldly becoming/non-becoming, fearlessness/fear). Ethical clarity and liberation begin by seeing through these false self-notions.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vasiṣṭha is instructing his listener in a reflective, renunciatory discourse typical of the Śānti Parva: he diagnoses the inner error by which a person superimposes contradictory states upon the Self, thereby sustaining confusion and suffering.