Shloka 14
Jarā-Mṛtyu-anatikrama: Janaka–Pañcaśikha-saṃvāda
Aging and Death Cannot Be Overstepped
गुणानां महदादीनामुत्पत्तिश्व॒ परस्परम् । अधिष्ठानात् क्षेत्रमाहुरेतत्तत् पजचविंशकम्,महत्तत््व आदि गुणोंकी उत्पत्ति प्रकृति और पुरुषके परस्पर संयोगसे होती है; अतः एक-दूसरेका अधिष्ठान होनेके कारण पुरुषको भी क्षेत्र कहते हैं
guṇānāṁ mahad-ādīnām utpattiś ca parasparam | adhiṣṭhānāt kṣetram āhur etat tat pañcaviṁśakam ||
Vasiṣṭha berkata: “Prinsip-prinsip yang nyata—bermula dengan Mahat dan seterusnya, yakni evolut guṇa—lahir melalui pertautan Prakṛti dan Puruṣa. Oleh sebab masing-masing menjadi sandaran (adhiṣṭhāna) bagi yang lain, keseluruhan ini disebut ‘kṣetra’, ‘medan’. Maka, bahkan Puruṣa pun disebut kṣetra dalam kerangka dua puluh lima prinsip ini.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
Cosmic manifestation (from Mahat onward) is explained as arising from the association of Prakṛti (material nature) and Puruṣa (conscious witness). Because experience depends on their mutual grounding, the tradition can speak of the whole complex as ‘kṣetra’ (field), even extending the term to Puruṣa in this Sāṅkhya-style, twenty-five-principle account.
In Śānti Parva’s didactic setting, Vasiṣṭha is instructing on philosophical analysis of reality—how the constituents of the world arise and how the ‘field’ of experience is defined—using Sāṅkhya categories to clarify the relation between nature (Prakṛti) and consciousness (Puruṣa).