Shloka 29

Yoga-kṛtya (योककृत्य) — Vyāsa on Sense-Restraint, Obstacles, and Brahman-Realization

Devanagari script

कर्मजो<यं पृथग्भावो द्वन्द्ययुक्तोडपि देहिन: । तमात्मसिद्धिर्विज्ञानाज्जहाति पुरुषो बलात्‌,देहाभिमानी जीवको जो यह पृथक्‌-पृथक्‌ शीत-उष्ण आदि द्वन्धोंका भोग प्राप्त होता है, वह कर्मजनित है। मनुष्य तत्त्वज्ञानके द्वारा उस द्वन्द्रभोगको त्याग देता है तथा ज्ञानके ही बलसे आत्मसिद्धि (मोक्ष) प्राप्त कर लेता है

Transliteration

karmajo ’yaṃ pṛthagbhāvo dvandvayukto ’pi dehinaḥ | tam ātmasiddhir vijñānāj jahāti puruṣo balāt ||

Translation

毗耶娑说：有身者之中那种「我与万物相别」的分别感——虽与寒热等对待之相相系——乃由业力而生。凭借真实的辨知，人能毅然舍离此二元之受，而以知识之力证得真我成就，即解脱。

Word by Word

कर्मजःborn of action (karma-born)

अयम्this

पृथग्भावःseparateness; sense of difference

द्वन्द्वयुक्तःconnected with pairs of opposites

अपिeven; also

देहिनःof the embodied being

तम्that (it)

आत्मसिद्धिःrealization/attainment of the Self

विज्ञानात्from/through discriminative knowledge

जहातिabandons

पुरुषःa person

बलात्by force; by the power (of it)

Speaker

व्यास उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vyāsa

puruṣa (the person)

dehin (the embodied being)

dvandva (pairs of opposites)

ātman (Self)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse teaches that the felt separateness and the compulsion to experience life through opposites (pleasure/pain, cold/heat) are karma-born. Liberation comes when discriminative knowledge (vijñāna) dissolves identification with the body and thereby ends bondage to duality.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on liberation, Vyāsa explains a philosophical point: the embodied being’s dualistic experience is not the Self’s nature but a product of karma and identification. He states that knowledge enables one to abandon this duality and attain ātmasiddhi (mokṣa).