Shloka 8
Yoga-kṛtya (योककृत्य) — Vyāsa on Sense-Restraint, Obstacles, and Brahman-Realization
गुणा: सर्वस्य पूर्वस्य प्राप्तुवन्त्युत्तरोत्तरम् । तेषां यावद् यथा यच्च तत्तत् तावदगुणं स्मृतम्
guṇāḥ sarvasya pūrvasya prāptuvanty uttarottaram | teṣāṁ yāvad yathā yac ca tat tat tāvad aguṇaṁ smṛtam ||
व्यास उवाच—भूतानामुत्तरोत्तरप्रादुर्भावे उत्तरं भूतं पूर्वस्य सर्वान् गुणान् प्रतिपद्यते। तेषु च भूतिषु यावद् यथा यच्च भूतं तिष्ठति, तावदेव तस्य गुणाः स्मृताः; ततोऽन्यथा तदगुणमेव परिकीर्त्यते।
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a graded, successive model of cosmology: later-produced elements inherit the qualities of earlier ones, and a quality is considered present only so long as the corresponding element persists in a given mode and duration; outside that scope it is treated as absent.
In the didactic discourse of the Śānti Parva, Vyāsa explains a philosophical account of how elemental qualities arise and persist, using the principle of successive inheritance (uttarottaram) and conditional presence (yāvat-tāvat).