Shloka 38
अव्यक्त-गुण-पुरुषविवेकः | Avyakta, Guṇas, and Discrimination of Puruṣa
भोक्तव्यानि मयैतानि देवलोकगतेन वै | इहैव चैनं भोक्ष्यामि शुभाशुभफलोदयम्
bhoaktavyāni mayaitāni devalokagatena vai | ihaiva cainaṁ bhokṣyāmi śubhāśubhaphalodayam ||
婆悉吒说道：“他心想：‘这些果报，待我到了诸天界，必当由我受用；而在此处，我也将受用善与不善之果的现起。’于是，在原质（Prakṛti）的驱使下，乐苦等对待之相依其本性反复出现；然而具身之我因无明而想：‘这些侵袭只落在我身上，我必须努力逃脱。’与原质相系之人，在迷妄中又想：‘我将上升天界，享受一切行为之果；而往昔善恶业所显现的果报，我也将在此受受。’”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse highlights karmic causality and the delusion of personal doership: under the impulse of Prakṛti, pleasure and pain recur as natural opposites, but the ignorant self imagines ‘I alone am attacked’ and constructs plans about enjoying merit in heaven and suffering/experiencing other results here. The teaching points toward seeing these experiences as the unfolding of karma within nature, rather than as a uniquely personal assault.
Vasiṣṭha is instructing a king (addressed in the surrounding prose as ‘nareśvara’) in a reflective, philosophical mode. He describes how an embodied person, bound to Prakṛti, misinterprets the recurring experiences of life (dvandvas) and forms beliefs about where and how karmic fruits will be enjoyed—some in heaven (devaloka), some in the present world—thereby remaining entangled in sorrow and striving.