Shloka 4
Yājñavalkya on the Unity of Sāṃkhya and Yoga and the Marks of Meditative Composure
कला पज्चदशी योनिस्तद्धाम प्रतिबुध्यते । नित्यमेतद् विजानीहि सोम॑ वै षोडशीं कलाम्
kalā pañcadaśī yonis taddhāma pratibudhyate | nityam etad vijānīhi somaṁ vai ṣoḍaśīṁ kalām, rājan |
瓦西什塔说道：“十五分之‘迦罗’即为胎藏——众生由此而生之源；无明者只觉醒于那一处住处，便以之为依止。然而，王啊，你当恒常知晓：尚有第十六迦罗，即‘苏摩’之理，微妙而长存，如月之第十六相（阿摩），超越变易的十五相。”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts the changing, manifest basis of embodied life (the ‘fifteen kalās’ taken as the womb/source) with a subtler, enduring ‘sixteenth kalā’ identified with Soma/the lunar essence. Ethically and spiritually, it urges the king to look beyond what the ignorant treat as their sole refuge—mere phenomenal supports—and to recognize a constant principle that transcends fluctuation.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on higher knowledge, Vasiṣṭha addresses a king and uses lunar imagery: beings arise within a fifteenfold field, but true understanding includes a sixteenth, more constant element. The teacher redirects the listener from ordinary identification with the manifest ‘abode’ to contemplation of the subtler, abiding reality.