Shloka 13
यस्येरिता साङ्ख्यमयी दृढेह नौ- र्यया मुमुक्षुस्तरते दुरत्ययम् । भवार्णवं मृत्युपथं विपश्चित: परात्मभूतस्य कथं पृथङ्मति: ॥ १३ ॥
yasyeritā sāṅkhyamayī dṛḍheha naur yayā mumukṣus tarate duratyayam bhavārṇavaṁ mṛtyu-pathaṁ vipaścitaḥ parātma-bhūtasya kathaṁ pṛthaṅ-matiḥ
Kapila Muni proclaimed in this world the Sāṅkhya philosophy, a sturdy boat by which one may cross the ocean of ignorance. One who longs for liberation can take shelter of it to pass beyond the bhava-arṇava—the sea of material existence, the path of death. In such a profoundly learned sage, established in the Paramātmā, how could there be any distinction between enemy and friend?
One who is promoted to the transcendental position ( brahma-bhūta ) is always jubilant ( prasannātmā ). He is unaffected by the false distinctions between good and bad in the material world. Therefore, such an exalted person is samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu; that is to say, he is equal toward everyone, not distinguishing between friend and enemy. Because he is on the absolute platform, free from material contamination, he is called parātma-bhūta or brahma-bhūta. Kapila Muni, therefore, was not at all angry at the sons of Sagara Mahārāja; rather, they were burnt to ashes by the heat of their own bodies.
FAQs
This verse says the ocean of samsāra is duratyaya—very hard to cross—but one can cross it by the Lord-impelled ‘boat’ of sāṅkhya, steady spiritual discrimination that leads to liberation.
He teaches that true wisdom sees the Lord as the Supreme Self (Paramātmā) present in all; therefore, the sense of separateness from the Lord and from other beings is incompatible with realized knowledge.
Practice steady discernment—seeing the temporary as temporary and the soul’s relationship with the Lord as eternal—so that fear, ego-based division, and anxiety about loss and death gradually diminish.