Shloka 34
Vyaktāvyakta-Viveka and Nivṛtti as Paramā Gati
Manifest–Unmanifest Discrimination and the Supreme Path of Withdrawal
तद्धत् सोमगुणा जिद्ना गन्धस्तु पृथिवीगुण: । श्रोत्रं नभोगुणं चैव चक्षुरग्नेर्गुणस्तथा । स्पर्श वायुगुणं विद्यात् सर्वभूतेषु सर्वदा
tad dhrāt somaguṇā jihvā gandhas tu pṛthivīguṇaḥ | śrotraṃ nabhoguṇaṃ caiva cakṣur agner guṇas tathā | sparśaṃ vāyuguṇaṃ vidyāt sarvabhūteṣu sarvadā ||
毗湿摩说道：当知舌具苏摩之性——味与津液之德；嗅为地之德；听属虚空（ākāśa）之德；见亦为火之德；而触当恒知为风之德，于一切众生、于一切时皆然。由是可知，诸根依诸大之德而行，使人洞察身之本性，不复仅以感官所受而认同为我。
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse maps each sense faculty to the dominant quality of a classical element—taste/tongue with Soma-like rasa, smell with earth, hearing with space, sight with fire, and touch with wind—so that one understands sensory experience as elemental and conditioned, not as the true Self.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira in philosophical discernment and dharma after the war. Here he explains a cosmological-psychological framework: how the senses operate through elemental qualities across all beings, supporting contemplation, restraint, and liberation-oriented understanding.