Shloka 5
जनकस्य मोक्षमार्गप्रश्नः तथा पञ्चशिखोपदेश-प्रस्तावः | Janaka’s Path to Liberation: Prelude to Pañcaśikha’s Instruction
न भूर्न खं द्यौर्भूतानि नर्षयो न सुरासुरा: । नान्यदासीदृते जीवमासेदुर्न तु संहतम्,पहले पृथ्वी, आकाश, स्वर्ग, भूतगण, ऋषिगण तथा देवता और असुरगण इनमेंसे कोई नहीं था। चेतनके सिवा दूसरी किसी वस्तुकी सत्ता ही नहीं थी। जड-चेतनका संयोग भी नहीं था
na bhūr na khaṁ dyaur bhūtāni na ṛṣayo na surāsurāḥ | nānyad āsīd ṛte jīvam āsedur na tu saṁhatam ||
Bhīṣma nói: Thuở ban sơ không có đất, không có trời, không có thiên giới; không có các chúng hữu tình, không có các bậc hiền triết, cũng không có chư thiên và a-tu-la. Ngoài nguyên lý sống có ý thức ra, không có gì khác tồn tại. Ngay cả sự kết hợp giữa cái vô tri và cái hữu tri cũng chưa hề thành lập.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Before manifested creation, all differentiated categories—worlds, beings, sages, and even gods and asuras—are denied; only the conscious living principle (jīva) is affirmed. The verse stresses a pre-manifest state where the sentient and insentient are not yet conjoined, pointing to an ontological priority of consciousness over formed matter and categories.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction to Yudhiṣṭhira, Bhīṣma shifts from practical dharma to higher reflection on origins and reality. Here he begins a cosmogonic account: describing an initial unmanifest condition in which familiar cosmic structures and classes of beings are absent, setting the stage for explaining how creation and differentiation arise.