Shloka 7
सर्वमेवाथ विज्ञेयं चित्तं ज्ञानमवेक्षते | रेत:शरीरभृत्काये विज्ञाता तु शरीरभूृत्,जाननेमें आनेवाला यह सारा जगत् चित्तरूप ही है, वह ज्ञानकी अर्थात् प्रकाशककी अपेक्षा रखता है तथा वीर्यजनित शरीर-समुदायमें रहनेवाला शरीरधारी जीव उसको जाननेवाला है
sarvam evātha vijñeyaṁ cittaṁ jñānam avekṣate | retaḥ-śarīra-bhṛt-kāye vijñātā tu śarīra-bhṛt ||
The Brāhmaṇa said: “All that is to be known is, in truth, of the nature of mind; it depends upon knowledge—the illuminator—for its disclosure. And the embodied self, dwelling in the aggregate of bodies produced from semen, is the knower of it.”
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse distinguishes three factors in knowing: (1) the knowable world as it appears in/through mind (citta), (2) knowledge (jñāna) as the illuminator that makes cognition possible, and (3) the embodied self (śarīra-bhṛt, jīva) as the knower who apprehends experience while residing in a body.
In Ashvamedhika Parva, a Brāhmaṇa speaker delivers a reflective, didactic discourse. Here he frames experience and cognition in philosophical terms—explaining how the world is grasped through mind, revealed by knowledge, and known by the embodied being.