Shloka 55
Vidura’s Return; Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Departure; Nārada’s Instruction on Kāla and Detachment
विज्ञानात्मनि संयोज्य क्षेत्रज्ञे प्रविलाप्य तम् । ब्रह्मण्यात्मानमाधारे घटाम्बरमिवाम्बरे ॥ ५५ ॥
vijñānātmani saṁyojya kṣetrajñe pravilāpya tam brahmaṇy ātmānam ādhāre ghaṭāmbaram ivāmbare
He will join his awareness to the self illumined by realized knowledge, and then dissolve the knower of the field into Brahman—like the space within a pot merging into the vast sky.
The living being, by his desiring to lord it over the material world and declining to cooperate with the Supreme Lord, contacts the sum total of the material world, namely the mahat-tattva, and from the mahat-tattva his false identity with the material world, intelligence, mind and senses is developed. This covers his pure spiritual identity. By the yogic process, when his pure identity is realized in self-realization, one has to revert to the original position by amalgamating the five gross elements and the subtle elements, mind and intelligence, into the mahat-tattva again. Thus getting freed from the clutches of the mahat-tattva, he has to merge in the existence of the Supersoul. In other words, he has to realize that qualitatively he is nondifferent from the Supersoul, and thus he transcends the material sky by his pure identical intelligence and thus becomes engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. This is the highest perfectional development of spiritual identity, which was attained by Dhṛtarāṣṭra by the grace of Vidura and the Lord. The Lord’s mercy was bestowed upon him by his personal contact with Vidura, and when he was actually practicing the instructions of Vidura, the Lord helped him to attain the highest perfectional stage.
FAQs
This verse describes a progressive inner absorption: mind steadied by realized knowledge is merged into the conscious self (kṣetrajña), and that self is then dissolved into Brahman, the ultimate substratum—illustrated by the pot-space becoming one with the sky.
In Canto 1 Chapter 13, Śukadeva narrates how Dhṛtarāṣṭra left home for spiritual practice; this verse highlights the culmination of his renunciation—complete detachment and absorption—showing the fruit of disciplined spiritual life.
Treat the body-mind identity as a temporary ‘container’: through steady practice (self-inquiry, meditation, and detachment), shift attention from changing thoughts to the witnessing self, and cultivate remembrance of the ultimate reality beyond ego and possessions.