Shloka 4
Yājñavalkya on the Unity of Sāṃkhya and Yoga and the Marks of Meditative Composure
कला पज्चदशी योनिस्तद्धाम प्रतिबुध्यते । नित्यमेतद् विजानीहि सोम॑ वै षोडशीं कलाम्
kalā pañcadaśī yonis taddhāma pratibudhyate | nityam etad vijānīhi somaṁ vai ṣoḍaśīṁ kalām, rājan |
Vasiṣṭha disse: “A kalā de quinze partes é o ventre — a fonte onde os seres surgem — e o ignorante desperta apenas para essa morada, tomando-a por amparo. Mas sabe-o sempre, ó rei: há também uma décima sexta kalā, o princípio de Soma — sutil e duradouro — como a décima sexta fase da lua (amā), além das quinze mutáveis.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts the changing, manifest basis of embodied life (the ‘fifteen kalās’ taken as the womb/source) with a subtler, enduring ‘sixteenth kalā’ identified with Soma/the lunar essence. Ethically and spiritually, it urges the king to look beyond what the ignorant treat as their sole refuge—mere phenomenal supports—and to recognize a constant principle that transcends fluctuation.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on higher knowledge, Vasiṣṭha addresses a king and uses lunar imagery: beings arise within a fifteenfold field, but true understanding includes a sixteenth, more constant element. The teacher redirects the listener from ordinary identification with the manifest ‘abode’ to contemplation of the subtler, abiding reality.