Shloka 29
Yoga-kṛtya (योककृत्य) — Vyāsa on Sense-Restraint, Obstacles, and Brahman-Realization
कर्मजो<यं पृथग्भावो द्वन्द्ययुक्तोडपि देहिन: । तमात्मसिद्धिर्विज्ञानाज्जहाति पुरुषो बलात्
karmajo ’yaṃ pṛthagbhāvo dvandvayukto ’pi dehinaḥ | tam ātmasiddhir vijñānāj jahāti puruṣo balāt ||
कर्मजोऽयं पृथग्भावो द्वन्द्वयुक्तोऽपि देहिनः । तमात्मसिद्धिर्विज्ञानाज्जहाति पुरुषो बलात् ॥
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the felt separateness and the compulsion to experience life through opposites (pleasure/pain, cold/heat) are karma-born. Liberation comes when discriminative knowledge (vijñāna) dissolves identification with the body and thereby ends bondage to duality.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on liberation, Vyāsa explains a philosophical point: the embodied being’s dualistic experience is not the Self’s nature but a product of karma and identification. He states that knowledge enables one to abandon this duality and attain ātmasiddhi (mokṣa).