भीष्म उवाच रजसा साध्यते मोहस्तमसा भरतर्षभ। क्रोधलोभौ भयं दर्प एतेषां सादनाच्छुचिः॥
Bhishma said Delusion or loss of judgement arises from the quality of Darkness. Anger, cupidity, fear and pride originate from the quality of Ignorance, O foremost of Bharata's race. When all these are destroyed, one becomes pure.
परमं परमात्मानं देवमक्षयमव्ययम्। विष्णुमव्यक्तसंस्थानं विदुस्तं देवसत्तमम्॥
By obtaining purity, a person acquires the knowledge of the Supreme Soul which is effulgent, incapable of deterioration, without change, pervading all things, having the unmanifest for his refuge, and the foremost of all the gods.
तस्य मायापिनद्धाङ्गा नष्टज्ञाना विचेतसः। मानवा ज्ञानसम्मोहात् ततः क्रोधं प्रयान्ति वै॥
By His illusory power men fall away from knowledge and become senseless, and their knowledge being darkened, yield to anger.
क्रोधात् काममवाप्याथ लोभमोहौ च मानवाः। मानदर्पावहङ्कारमहङ्कारात् ततः क्रियाः॥
From anger, they become subject to desire. From desire originate cupidity, delusion, vanity, pride and selfishness. From such selfishness proceed various sorts of acts.
क्रियाभिः स्नेहसम्बन्धात्स्नेहाच्छोकमनन्तरम्। सुखदुःखक्रियारम्भाज्जन्माजन्मकृतक्षणाः॥
From acts originate various ties of affection and from those ties of affection springs sorrow or misery and from acts imbued with joy and sorrow proceeds the liability to birth and death.
जन्मतो गर्भवासं तु शुक्रशोणितसम्भवम्। पुरीषमूत्रविक्लेदं शोणितप्रभवाविलम्॥
On account of the obligation of birth, one is compelled to live within the womb,—for the union of vital seed and blood. Living there is defiled with excreta urine and phlegm, and always fouled with blood that is created there.
तृष्णाभिभूतस्तैर्बद्धस्तानेवाभिपरिप्लवन्। संसारतन्त्रवाहिन्यस्तत्र बुद्ध्येत योषितः॥
Overwhelmed by thirst, the Intelligence Soul becomes fettered by anger and the rest that have been described above. It seeks, however, to escape those evils. In this respect, women must be considered as instruments which set the stream of Creation a going.
प्रकृत्या क्षेत्रभूतास्ता नराः क्षेत्रज्ञलक्षणाः। तस्मादेवाविशेषेण नरोऽतीयाद् विशेषतः॥
By their nature, women are Kshetra, and men are Kshetrajna in respect of qualities. Therefore, wise persons should not pursue women especially.
कृत्या ह्येता घोररूपा मोहयन्त्यविचक्षणान्। रजस्यन्तर्हिता मूर्तिरिन्द्रियाणां सनातनी॥
Indeed, women are like dreadful Mantra powers. They stupefy persons shorn of wisdom. They are sunk in the quality of Darkness. They are the eternal embodiment of the senses.
तस्मात् तदात्मकाद् रागाद् बीजाज्जायन्ति जन्तवः। स्वदेहजानस्वसंज्ञान् यद्वदङ्गात् कृमीस्त्यजेत्। स्व संज्ञानस्वकांस्तद्वत् सुतसंज्ञान् कृमींस्त्यजेत्॥
On account of the strong desire that men cherish for women, offspring proceed from them, due to the action of the seminal fluid. As one throws off from his person such vermin as are born there but as are not on that account any part of oneself, so should one cast off those verinin of one's body that are called children, who, though regarded as one's own, are not his own in sooth.
शुक्रतो रसतश्चैव देहाज्जायन्ति जन्तवः। स्वभावात् कर्मयोगाद् वा तानुपेक्षेत बुद्धिमान्॥
From the seminal fluid and sweat creatures spring from the body, influenced by pristino acts or in the course of nature. Therefore, a wise man should feel no regard for them.
रजस्तमसि पर्यस्तं सत्त्वं च रजसि स्थितम्। ज्ञानाधिष्ठानमव्यक्तं बुद्ध्यहङ्कारलक्षणम्॥ तद् बीजं देहिनामाहुस्तद् बीजं जीवसंज्ञितम्। कर्मणा कालयुक्तेन संसारपरिवर्तनम्॥
The quality of Darkness rests on that of Ignorance. The quality of Goodness, again, rests on that of Darkness. Darkness which is unmanifest overspreads itself on Knowledge, and creates the phenomena of Intelligence and Consciousness has been described as the seed of individual Souls. That, again, which is the seed of such knowledge is called the Jiya (or Individual Soul). On account of acts and the virtue of time, the Soul goes through birth and repeated rounds of re-birth.
रमत्ययं यथा स्वप्ने मनसा देहवानिव। कर्मग:गुणैर्देही गर्भे तदुपलभ्यते॥
As in a dream the Soul plays as if invested with a body which, of course, is due to the action of the mind, similarly, it gets in the mother's womb a body in consequence of qualities and propensities created by pristine deeds.
कर्मणा बीजभूतेन चोद्यते यद् यदिन्द्रियम्। जायते तदहङ्काराद् रागयुक्तेन चेतसा॥
Whatever senses, while it is there, are awakened by pristine deeds as the operating cause, become created in Consciousness in consequence of the mind co-existing with attachments.
शब्दरागाच्छ्रात्रमस्य जायते भावितात्मनः। रूपरागात् तथा चक्षुघ्रीणं गन्धचिकीर्षया॥
On account of the past thoughts of sound that are awakened in it, the Soul, subjected to such influences, gets the organ of hearing. Similarly, from attachment to forms, its eye is produced, and from its desire after smell its organ of smelling.
स्पर्शने त्वक् तथा वायुः प्राणापानव्यपाश्रयः। व्यानोदानौ समानश्च पञ्चधा देहयापनम्॥
From thoughts of touch it acquires the skin. Likewise, the five vital airs are acquired by it, viz., Prana, Apana, Vyana, Udana, and Samana, which make the body agoing.
संजातैर्जायते गात्रैः कर्मजैर्वम॑णा वृतः। दुःखाद्यन्तैर्दुःखमध्यैर्नरः शारीरमानसैः॥
Encased in body with all limbs fully developed on account of pristine deeds, the Soul takes birth, with both physical and mental sorrow, in the beginning, iniddle, and end.
दुःखं विद्यादुपादानादभिमानाच्च वर्धते। त्यागात् तेभ्यो निरोधः स्यान्निरोधज्ञो विमुच्यते॥
It should be known that sorrow originates from the very formation of body in the womb). It increases with the idea of self. From renuciation of these, sorrow is destroyed. He who knows sorrow's end attains to Liberation.
इन्द्रियाणां रजस्येव प्रलयप्रभवावुभौ। परीक्ष्य संचरेद् विद्वान् यथावच्छास्त्रचक्षुषा॥
Both the origin and the destruction of the senses depend on the quality of Darkness. A wise man should act with proper scrutiny with the help of the eye of the scriptures.
ज्ञानेन्द्रियाणीन्द्रियार्थान्नोपसर्पन्त्यतर्षुलम्। हीनैश्च करणैर्देही न देहं पुनरर्हति॥
The senses of knowledge, if they succeed in acquiring all their objects, can never stupefy the man who is without thirst. The embodied Soul, by making its senses weak, is saved from the obligation of re-birth.