Shloka 13
Jarā-Mṛtyu-anatikrama: Janaka–Pañcaśikha-saṃvāda
Aging and Death Cannot Be Overstepped
सर्गप्रलयधर्मत्वादव्यक्त प्राहुरक्षरम् । तदेतद् गुणसर्गाय विकुर्वाणं पुन: पुन:
sarga-pralaya-dharmatvād avyaktaṃ prāhur akṣaram | tad etad guṇa-sargāya vikurvāṇaṃ punaḥ punaḥ ||
वसिष्ठ म्हणाले—सृष्टी व प्रलय हा ज्याचा स्वभाव आहे, त्या अव्यक्त (प्रकृती)ला ‘अक्षर’ म्हणतात. पण तीच प्रकृती गुणांच्या विकारांची—महत्तत्त्व इत्यादींची—सृष्टी करण्यासाठी पुन्हा पुन्हा परिवर्तन पावते; म्हणून तिला ‘क्षर’ असेही म्हणतात.
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse distinguishes two ways of speaking about Prakṛti (the Unmanifest): as akṣara because it persists as the underlying principle through cycles of creation and dissolution, and as kṣara because it repeatedly transforms to produce the manifest evolutes (mahat and others) driven by the guṇas.
In Śānti Parva’s philosophical instruction, Vasiṣṭha explains cosmological process and terminology: how the unmanifest ground is described as imperishable in itself, yet is also called perishable insofar as it becomes the changing world through repeated modification.