Shloka 7
कर्मविद्या-भेदः
Karma–Vidyā Distinction: Paths of Bondage and Release
अपामपि गुणं॑ तात ज्योतिराददते यदा | आपस्तदा त्वात्तगुणा ज्योति:षूपरमन्ति वै,वत्स! तदनन्तर तेज जलके गुण रसको ग्रहण कर लेता है और रसहीन जल तेजमें लीन हो जाता है
apām api guṇaṃ tāta jyotir ādadate yadā | āpas tadā tvāttaguṇā jyotiḥṣu uparamanti vai, vatsa |
毗耶娑说：“孩子啊，当火摄取了水的德性之时，水既被夺其德性，便确然止息——被吸摄——归入火中，吾子。”在伦理与哲理的语境里，此偈说明：更微细或更强势的原理能够攫取他者的标志性性质；一旦该性质被抽离，前者便失其独立立足之处，于是被称为融入后者，用以阐释坏灭、依存与诸要素的层级。
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a model of dissolution and dependence: when a dominant principle (here, fire/light) takes over the defining quality (guṇa) of another (water), the latter—deprived of its own defining attribute—loses separate status and is said to merge into the former. It supports a broader ethical-philosophical point in Śānti Parva about understanding constituents of reality and cultivating detachment from what is transient and derivative.
Vyāsa addresses a disciple/son affectionately (“tāta”, “vatsa”) and explains, through elemental imagery, how one element can absorb another during processes of transformation or dissolution: fire takes the ‘quality’ of water, and water, having lost that quality, subsides into fire.