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 ||
Бхишма сказал: «Творец существ вложил в тела всех живых одни и те же пять великих элементов. Но Он расположил их в неравных долях: в одних преобладает один элемент, в других — иной ослабевает. Эту тонкую несоразмерность, порождающую многообразие воплощённой жизни, обычная душа не замечает».
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.