Shloka 14

Yoga, Nārāyaṇa as Supreme Principle, and the Emanation of Categories

Sāṅkhya-Yoga Outline

Devanagari script

नोत्सहन्ते यथा वेत्तुमिन्द्रियैरिन्द्रियाण्यपि । तथैवेह परा बुद्धि: परं बोध्यं न पश्यति

Transliteration

notsahante yathā vettum indriyaiḥ indriyāṇy api | tathaiveha parā buddhiḥ paraṃ bodhyaṃ na paśyati | kintu jñātā puruṣa eva buddhyā tasya sākṣāt karoti ||

Translation

Bhīṣma sprach: So wie die Sinnesorgane die Sinnesorgane nicht wahrhaft durch die Sinne selbst erkennen können, so vermag in dieser Welt selbst der höchste Intellekt aus sich heraus das höchste Erkenntnisobjekt nicht zu schauen. Vielmehr ist es der bewusste Erkenner—der Mensch als Zeuge—der, den Intellekt als Werkzeug gebrauchend, Jenes unmittelbar verwirklicht.

Word by Word

• {'na utsahante': 'do not have the capacity

• are not able', 'yathā': 'just as

• in the manner that', 'vettum': 'to know

• to ascertain', 'indriyaiḥ': 'by the sense-organs

• through the senses (instrumental plural)', 'indriyāṇi': 'the sense-organs

• faculties of perception/action', 'api': 'even

• also', 'tathā eva': 'so exactly

• in the same way', 'iha': 'here

• in this world/embodied condition', 'parā buddhiḥ': 'the higher/supreme intellect

• refined discriminative faculty', 'param': 'the Supreme

• the highest', 'bodhyam': 'that which is to be known

• the ultimate knowable reality', 'na paśyati': 'does not see

• does not directly perceive', 'kintu': 'but

• rather', 'jñātā': 'the knower

• the conscious subject', 'puruṣaḥ': 'the person

• the inner self/witness (puruṣa)', 'buddhyā': 'by means of intellect

• with the intellect (instrumental)', 'tasya': 'of that (Supreme reality)', 'sākṣāt': 'directly

• in one’s own experience', 'karoti': 'does

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma (speaker)
• indriya (sense-organs)
• parā buddhi (higher intellect)
• puruṣa/jñātā (the knower, inner witness)
• param bodhya (the Supreme knowable reality)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse distinguishes instruments of knowledge (senses and even refined intellect) from the true knower (puruṣa). Instruments cannot fully grasp their own basis or the Supreme reality by themselves; direct realization (sākṣāt) occurs when the conscious witness uses intellect as a tool, not as the final authority.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on liberation and right understanding, Bhishma continues advising Yudhishthira by explaining the limits of sensory and intellectual cognition and pointing toward direct experiential knowledge of the highest truth through the inner knower.