Brahmā’s Instruction on Brahmacarya, Vānaprastha, and the Aliṅga Path
Ethics of Non-attachment
मनो बुद्धिरहंकारमव्यक्तं पुरुषं तथा । एतत् सर्व प्रसंख्याय यथावत् तत्त्वनिश्चयात्
mano buddhir ahaṅkāram avyaktaṁ puruṣaṁ tathā | etat sarva prasaṅkhyāya yathāvat tattvaniścayāt ||
Vāyu sprach: „Geist (manas), Intellekt (buddhi), Ich-Sinn (ahaṃkāra), das Unmanifestierte (avyakta) und auch die Person (Puruṣa) — wer all dies ordnungsgemäß und in der rechten Reihenfolge aufzählt, gelangt zu einer festen Bestimmung der Wirklichkeit.“
वायुदेव उवाच
Systematic discrimination of inner principles—mind, intellect, ego, the unmanifest source, and the conscious Puruṣa—leads to tattva-niścaya, a decisive grasp of reality. The verse emphasizes ordered analysis (Sāṅkhya-style enumeration) as a means to clarity about what is material/psychic and what is the witnessing consciousness.
Vāyudeva is speaking in a didactic context, presenting a concise philosophical instruction. He points the listener toward a method: enumerate and distinguish the constituents of experience and the underlying principles, so that correct understanding of truth can be established.