Shloka 8
मनु-उपदेशः — भूत-उत्पत्ति, इन्द्रिय-निवृत्ति, तथा पर-स्वभाव-विवेकः
Manu’s Instruction on Elemental Origination, Sense-Withdrawal, and Discrimination of the Supreme Nature
महाभूतानि पज्चैव सर्वभूतेषु भूतकृत् । अकरोत् तेषु वैषम्यं तत्तु जीवो न पश्यति
mahābhūtāni pañcaiva sarvabhūteṣu bhūtakṛt | akarot teṣu vaiṣamyaṃ tattu jīvo na paśyati ||
Bhishma disse: “O Criador dos seres colocou os mesmos cinco grandes elementos nos corpos de todas as criaturas. Contudo, dispôs esses elementos em proporções desiguais—fazendo um elemento mais dominante em alguns e menos em outros. Essa desigualdade sutil, que explica a diversidade da vida encarnada, não é percebida pela alma comum.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
All embodied beings are constituted from the same five great elements, but their differing proportions create the vast diversity of bodies and temperaments. This elemental disparity is subtle and usually invisible to the ordinary jīva, pointing to the need for discriminative knowledge to understand embodiment.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on peace and wisdom, Bhīṣma continues teaching about the nature of embodied existence. He explains to his listener that the Creator places the same elemental basis in all creatures, yet varies their mixture, and that common perception fails to notice this underlying metaphysical structure.