Shloka 5
ब्राह्मण उवाच गुणाज्ञानमविज्ञानं गुणज्ञानमभिज्ञता | परस्परं गुणानेते नाभिजानन्ति कह्िचित्,ब्राह्मणने कहा--प्रिये! (यहाँ देखनेका अर्थ है, जानना) गुणोंको न जानना ही गुणवानको न जानना कहलाता है और गुणोंको जानना ही गुणवान्को जानना है। ये नासिका आदि सात होता एक-दूसरेके गुणोंको कभी नहीं जान पाते हैं (इसीलिये कहा गया है कि ये एक-दूसरेको नहीं देखते हैं)
brāhmaṇa uvāca | guṇājñānam avijñānaṃ guṇajñānam abhijñatā | parasparaṃ guṇān ete nābhijānanti kaścit ||
The Brāhmaṇa said: “Not knowing the qualities is true ignorance; knowing the qualities is real discernment. Yet these (sense-faculties) do not truly recognize one another’s qualities in mutual relation—none of them fully apprehends the other.”
ब्राह्मण उवाच
Educational Q&A
True ignorance is the failure to discern qualities (guṇas) correctly; true understanding is the clear recognition of qualities. The verse points to the limits of the senses: they operate in their own domains and cannot, by themselves, fully grasp one another’s nature—hence discernment must go beyond mere sensory functioning.
A Brāhmaṇa is instructing (addressing a प्रिय/‘dear one’ in the surrounding prose) on the meaning of ‘seeing’ as ‘knowing.’ He explains that recognizing a person/thing depends on recognizing its qualities, and he uses the mutual non-recognition among the sense-faculties as an illustration of why ordinary perception is limited.