Shloka 8
Adhyāya 241: Guṇa-sṛṣṭi, Kṣetrajña-sākṣitva, and Śama through Ātma-jñāna (गुणसृष्टिः, क्षेत्रज्ञसाक्षित्वं, शमः)
कर्मणा जायते प्रेत्य मूर्तिमान्ू षोडशात्मक: । विद्यया जायते नित्यमव्यक्त हाव्ययात्मकम्
bhīṣma uvāca | karmaṇā jāyate pretya mūrtimān ṣoḍaśātmakaḥ | vidyayā jāyate nityam avyaktam avyayātmakam ||
毗湿摩说：由业行之力，众生死后复生，取受由十六种原理所成的有形之身；而由真知（vidyā），则恒得“生于”——亦即证得——那不显现（avyakta）而不坏灭的本体。
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Actions (karma) bind the self to post-mortem rebirth in an embodied form made of the ‘sixteen principles,’ whereas liberating knowledge (vidyā/jñāna) leads to realization/attainment of the unmanifest, imperishable reality—i.e., freedom from embodied becoming.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on dharma and liberation, Bhishma continues his discourse to Yudhishthira by contrasting two paths and outcomes: karmic continuity producing another embodied existence versus knowledge culminating in the unmanifest, undecaying principle (paramātman/brahman).