Shloka 4

Jvarotpatti — The Origin and Distribution of Jvara

Fever

Devanagari script

असित उवाच येभ्य: सृजति भूतानि काले भावप्रचोदित: । महाभूतानि पज्चेति तान्याहुर्भूतचिन्तका:

Transliteration

asita uvāca | yebhyaḥ sṛjati bhūtāni kāle bhāvapracoditaḥ | mahābhūtāni pañceti tāny āhur bhūtacintakāḥ ||

Translation

阿悉多说：“天仙圣者啊，在创造之时，至上之我受众生潜在之性向（bhāva）所驱，随时而动，从若干根本原理中生出一切众类。思惟物质本性的智者称这些原理为‘五大’（pañca-mahābhūta）。”

Word by Word

• {'asita uvāca': 'Asita said', 'yebhyaḥ': 'from which

• from those (principles)', 'sṛjati': 'creates

• brings forth', 'bhūtāni': 'beings

• created entities', 'kāle': 'at the time (especially the time of creation)

• in due time', 'bhāva-pracoditaḥ': 'impelled by dispositions/latent tendencies

• prompted by inner states (often understood as vāsanās/saṃskāras)', 'mahābhūtāni': 'the great elements (classically: earth, water, fire, wind, space)', 'pañca': 'five', 'iti': 'thus

• as', 'tāni': 'those (principles/elements)', 'āhuḥ': 'they say

• they call', 'bhūta-cintakāḥ': 'thinkers/inquirers into the elements

Speaker

असित उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Asita
• pañca mahābhūtāni (five great elements)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Creation is described as proceeding through fundamental material principles—the five great elements—while the process is also linked to the latent dispositions (bhāvas/vāsanās) of beings, indicating a moral-psychological dimension to cosmology.

What is happening in the narrative?

Asita is explaining to a sage interlocutor a philosophical account of how beings arise at the time of creation, identifying the foundational constituents that thinkers call the five mahābhūtas.