Shloka 4
Yājñavalkya on the Unity of Sāṃkhya and Yoga and the Marks of Meditative Composure
कला पज्चदशी योनिस्तद्धाम प्रतिबुध्यते । नित्यमेतद् विजानीहि सोम॑ वै षोडशीं कलाम्,राजन! चन्द्रमाकी पंद्रह कलाओंके समान जीवोंकी पंद्रह कलाएँ ही उत्पत्तिके स्थान हैं। अज्ञानी जीव उन्हींको अपना आश्रय समझता है; परंतु उसकी जो सोलहवीं कला है, उसको तुम नित्य समझो। वह चन्द्रमाकी अमा नामक सोलहवीं कलाके समान है
kalā pañcadaśī yonis taddhāma pratibudhyate | nityam etad vijānīhi somaṁ vai ṣoḍaśīṁ kalām, rājan |
Vasiṣṭha nói: “Mười lăm ‘kalā’ là bào thai—nguồn phát sinh nơi các hữu tình khởi lên; kẻ vô minh chỉ tỉnh thức đối với chỗ ấy, lấy đó làm chỗ nương tựa. Nhưng hãy luôn biết, hỡi đại vương: còn có ‘kalā’ thứ mười sáu, nguyên lý ‘Soma’—vi tế và bền vững—như pha thứ mười sáu của mặt trăng (amā), vượt ngoài mười lăm phần biến đổi.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts the changing, manifest basis of embodied life (the ‘fifteen kalās’ taken as the womb/source) with a subtler, enduring ‘sixteenth kalā’ identified with Soma/the lunar essence. Ethically and spiritually, it urges the king to look beyond what the ignorant treat as their sole refuge—mere phenomenal supports—and to recognize a constant principle that transcends fluctuation.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on higher knowledge, Vasiṣṭha addresses a king and uses lunar imagery: beings arise within a fifteenfold field, but true understanding includes a sixteenth, more constant element. The teacher redirects the listener from ordinary identification with the manifest ‘abode’ to contemplation of the subtler, abiding reality.