Shloka 18

Vimokṣa-niścaya: Pañcaśikha’s Analysis of Aggregates, Guṇas, and Tyāga (मोक्षनिर्णयः)

Devanagari script

अजितेन्द्रिय जीव अज्ञानवश सत्त्व, रज और तमसे मोहित हो निरन्तर चक्रकी तरह घूमते रहते हैं ।।

Transliteration

bhīṣma uvāca | ajitendriyo jīvo 'jñānavaśāt sattva-rajas-tamobhir mohito nityaṃ cakrakīva parivartate || tasmāt samyak parīkṣeta doṣān ajñāna-sambhavān | ajñāna-prabhavaṃ duḥkham ahaṃkāraṃ parityajet ||

Translation

Bhishma nói: Hữu tình chưa chế ngự được các căn, bị vô minh thúc đẩy và bị ba guna—sattva, rajas, tamas—làm mê hoặc, cứ xoay vần không dứt như bánh xe. Vì vậy, phải cẩn trọng xét kỹ những lỗi lầm phát sinh từ vô minh, và từ bỏ khổ đau cùng ngã chấp (ahaṃkāra) do vô minh ấy sinh ra.

Word by Word

• {'ajitendriyaḥ': 'one whose senses are unconquered

• lacking self-mastery', 'jīvaḥ': 'the individual living being

• embodied self', 'ajñānavaśāt': 'under the sway of ignorance', 'sattva': 'the guṇa of clarity, balance, illumination', 'rajas': 'the guṇa of passion, activity, restlessness', 'tamas': 'the guṇa of darkness, inertia, delusion', 'mohitaḥ': 'deluded, bewildered', 'nityam': 'constantly, perpetually', 'cakrakīva': 'like a wheel', 'parivartate': 'turns about, revolves

• continues in cyclic movement', 'tasmāt': 'therefore', 'samyak': 'properly, thoroughly, rightly', 'parīkṣeta': 'one should examine/investigate', 'doṣān': 'faults, defects, moral/spiritual blemishes', 'ajñāna-sambhavān': 'arising from ignorance', 'ajñāna-prabhavam': 'originating from ignorance', 'duḥkham': 'suffering, pain, distress', 'ahaṃkāram': 'egoism

• the ‘I’-notion, self-conceit', 'parityajet': 'one should abandon, renounce'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma (speaker)
• jīva (the living being)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Lack of sense-control keeps the jīva trapped in cyclic wandering under the delusion of the three guṇas. The remedy is discriminative inquiry: identify the faults born of ignorance and abandon the ego-sense and suffering that arise from it.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s instruction section, Bhīṣma continues advising Yudhiṣṭhira on inner discipline and liberation-oriented ethics, explaining why beings remain bound and what practical mental renunciation is required.