Shloka 48
Brahmā’s Instruction on Brahmacarya, Vānaprastha, and the Aliṅga Path
Ethics of Non-attachment
अगन्धमरसस्पर्शमरूपाशब्दमेव च । अनुगम्यमनासक्तममांसमपि चैव यत्,जो मनुष्य आत्माको हाथ, पैर, पीठ, मस्तक और उदर आदि अंगोंसे रहित, गुण- कर्मोंसे हीन, केवल, निर्मल, स्थिर, रूप-रस-गन्ध-स्पर्श और शब्दसे रहित, ज्ञेय, अनासक्त, हाड़-मांसके शरीरसे रहित, निश्चिन्त, अविनाशी, दिव्य और सम्पूर्ण प्राणियोंमें स्थित सदा एकरस रहनेवाला जानते हैं, उनकी कभी मृत्यु नहीं होती
agandham arasa-sparśam arūpāśabdam eva ca | anugamyam anāsaktam amāṁsam api caiva yat ||
Vāyu said: “That Self which is without smell, without taste and without touch; which is without form and indeed without sound; which is to be realized (by inner pursuit), unattached, and even without flesh—those who know the human Self to be devoid of limbs such as hands, feet, back, head, and belly; free from qualities and actions; pure, steady, beyond form, taste, smell, touch, and sound; knowable, unattached, free from the bony-fleshy body, untroubled, imperishable, divine, and abiding in all beings as ever the same—such knowers do not meet with death.
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the true Self is not the sensory, bodily person: it is formless, beyond the five sense-objects, unattached, pure, and all-pervading. Knowing oneself as this imperishable Ātman is presented as the basis for freedom from death (i.e., liberation from mortal identification).
Vāyudeva is instructing about the nature of the Ātman, using negations (absence of smell, taste, touch, form, sound) to detach the listener from bodily and sensory identification, and affirming that realization of this Self leads beyond death.