Shloka 22
Adhyāya 249 — Mṛtyu-prādurbhāvaḥ (The Manifestation of Death) / Restraint of Tejas and Ordered Saṃhāra
यह गोपनीय आत्मज्ञान सबसे अधिक गुह्मतम और महान् है। तात! मैंने जिसका उपदेश किया है, वह यथार्थतः मेरे अपने प्रत्यक्ष अनुभवमें लाया हुआ ज्ञान है ।।
vyāsa uvāca | naiva strī na pumān etan naiva caid na puṃsakam | aduḥkham asukhaṃ brahma bhūta-bhavya-bhavātmakam ||
Vyāsa said: This Brahman—free from both sorrow and pleasure, and whose nature encompasses past, future, and present—is neither woman nor man, nor is it of neuter gender. Thus the most secret teaching of the Self points beyond all bodily and linguistic classifications to the timeless reality that underlies all becoming.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
Brahman (the ultimate Self/reality) transcends all gendered and grammatical categories and is beyond the dualities of pleasure and pain; it is the timeless ground that includes past, present, and future.
In the instruction-setting of Śānti Parva, Vyāsa delivers a highly confidential teaching on Self-knowledge, clarifying that the highest reality cannot be captured by bodily identity or linguistic labels, and must be understood as beyond all dualities.