Mahabharata — Ashvamedhika Parva, Shloka 13
Mind as Charioteer; Kṣetrajña, Tapas, and Dhyāna-Yoga
Adhyātma-Upadeśa
द्रव्यमात्रभूत् सत्त्वं पुरुषस्येति निश्चय:
dravyamātrabhūt sattvaṃ puruṣasyeti niścayaḥ
ဝါယုက မိန့်တော်မူသည်— «အဆုံးအဖြတ်တည်ငြိမ်သော သဘောတရားမှာ ဤသို့ပင်— လူ၏ ‘သတ္တဝ’ (sattva) ဟူသည်မှာ ပစ္စည်းဓာတ်တစ်မျိုးသာ ဖြစ်၍၊ အရာဝတ္ထုများအနက် အရာတစ်ခုသာ ဖြစ်သည်»။
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse states a firm conclusion that a person’s ‘being’ (sattva) can be viewed as merely material—i.e., the human is treated as constituted of substance alone. In context, this functions as a philosophical claim about what truly defines a person, often prompting reflection on whether identity is only bodily/material or whether a higher self should be recognized.
Vāyudeva is speaking and presents a decisive doctrinal statement. The line reads like a summarized conclusion within a larger discussion, where Vāyu articulates a position about the nature of the person (puruṣa) and the status of ‘sattva’ as merely material.