Shloka 4
Yājñavalkya on the Unity of Sāṃkhya and Yoga and the Marks of Meditative Composure
कला पज्चदशी योनिस्तद्धाम प्रतिबुध्यते । नित्यमेतद् विजानीहि सोम॑ वै षोडशीं कलाम्,राजन! चन्द्रमाकी पंद्रह कलाओंके समान जीवोंकी पंद्रह कलाएँ ही उत्पत्तिके स्थान हैं। अज्ञानी जीव उन्हींको अपना आश्रय समझता है; परंतु उसकी जो सोलहवीं कला है, उसको तुम नित्य समझो। वह चन्द्रमाकी अमा नामक सोलहवीं कलाके समान है
kalā pañcadaśī yonis taddhāma pratibudhyate | nityam etad vijānīhi somaṁ vai ṣoḍaśīṁ kalām, rājan |
ヴァシシュタは言った。「十五のカラーは胎であり、衆生が生起する根源である。無知なる者はその住処にのみ目覚め、それを拠り所とする。だが常に知れ、王よ。第十六のカラーがある。それは“ソーマ”の原理—微妙にして久遠—であり、移ろう十五を超えて、月の第十六相（アマー）に等しい。」
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts the changing, manifest basis of embodied life (the ‘fifteen kalās’ taken as the womb/source) with a subtler, enduring ‘sixteenth kalā’ identified with Soma/the lunar essence. Ethically and spiritually, it urges the king to look beyond what the ignorant treat as their sole refuge—mere phenomenal supports—and to recognize a constant principle that transcends fluctuation.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on higher knowledge, Vasiṣṭha addresses a king and uses lunar imagery: beings arise within a fifteenfold field, but true understanding includes a sixteenth, more constant element. The teacher redirects the listener from ordinary identification with the manifest ‘abode’ to contemplation of the subtler, abiding reality.