Shloka 16
Vyaktāvyakta-Viveka and Nivṛtti as Paramā Gati
Manifest–Unmanifest Discrimination and the Supreme Path of Withdrawal
तथैव वेदशास्त्राणि लोकधर्माश्च शाश्वतान् । प्रलयं प्रकृति प्राप्प युगादौ सृजते पुन:
tathaiva vedaśāstrāṇi lokadharmāś ca śāśvatān | pralayaṁ prakṛtiṁ prāpya yugādau sṛjate punaḥ ||
“Do mesmo modo, os Vedas e os śāstras eternos, e as normas perenes do dharma mundano—após a dissolução (pralaya), tendo retornado à Prakṛti—são novamente manifestados no início de uma nova era (yuga).”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Dharma and scriptural knowledge are presented as perennial: they may become unmanifest during cosmic dissolution, but they reappear at the start of each new cycle, indicating an enduring moral and metaphysical order underlying changing worlds.
Bhīṣma, instructing on dharma in the Śānti Parva, explains a cosmological principle: after pralaya, the Vedas, śāstras, and social dharmas return from their latent state in Prakṛti and are manifested again at the beginning of a new yuga.