Shloka 15
Yoga, Nārāyaṇa as Supreme Principle, and the Emanation of Categories
Sāṅkhya-Yoga Outline
यथा चन्द्रो ह्मावास्यामलिड्त्वान्न दृश्यते | न च नाशो<स्य भवति तथा विद्धि शरीरिणम्,जैस चन्द्रमा अमावास्याको प्रकाशहीन हो जानेके कारण दिखायी नहीं देता है; किंतु उस समय उसका नाश नहीं होता। उसी प्रकार शरीरधारी आत्माके विषयमें भी समझना चाहिये अर्थात् आत्मा अदृश्य होनेपर भी उसका अभाव नहीं है, ऐसा समझना चाहिये
yathā candro ’māvāsyām ālīḍhatvān na dṛśyate | na ca nāśo ’sya bhavati tathā viddhi śarīriṇam ||
Bhishma said: “Just as the moon on the new-moon night is not seen, as though its light were swallowed up, yet it is not destroyed—so too you should understand the embodied Self. Even when it becomes unseen, it does not cease to exist.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Non-appearance is not non-existence: the embodied Self is not annihilated when it is not perceptible, just as the moon is not destroyed when it is invisible on the new-moon night.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction, Bhishma teaches about the nature of the Self using a familiar cosmic example (the moon’s invisibility at amāvāsyā) to clarify that the soul’s reality does not depend on sensory visibility.