Shloka 12

Yoga-kṛtya (योककृत्य) — Vyāsa on Sense-Restraint, Obstacles, and Brahman-Realization

Devanagari script

शरीरं श्रयणाद्‌ भवति मूर्तिमत्‌ षोडशात्मकम्‌ | तमाविशन्ति भूतानि महान्ति सह कर्मणा

Transliteration

śarīraṃ śrayaṇād bhavati mūrtimat ṣoḍaśātmakam | tam āviśanti bhūtāni mahānti saha karmaṇā ||

Translation

व्यास उवाच—शरीरं श्रयणाद् भवति मूर्तिमत् षोडशात्मकम्। तमाविशन्ति भूतानि महान्ति सह कर्मणा॥

Word by Word

• {'śarīram': 'body

• the embodied frame', 'śrayaṇāt': 'because of being a support/refuge

• from serving as a basis', 'bhavati': 'becomes

• comes to be', 'mūrtimat': 'having form

• embodied', 'ṣoḍaśa-ātmakam': 'consisting of sixteen constituents/principles', 'tam': 'it (the body)', 'āviśanti': 'enter

• take up residence in', 'bhūtāni': 'elements

• beings (here: elemental constituents)', 'mahānti': 'great (i.e., the great elements)', 'saha': 'together with', 'karmaṇā': 'with karma

Speaker

व्यास उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Vyāsa
• śarīra (the body)
• bhūta (the elements)
• karma

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The body is an ethical and experiential instrument: it is a support (śrayaṇa) made of sixteen constituents, and it becomes the field where karma’s remaining results can mature through embodied life.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on liberation-oriented knowledge, Vyāsa defines the body’s constitution and explains how the elements, together with karmic residue, enter the newly formed body to enable lived experience and moral consequence.