Shloka 51
भवन्तो ज्ञानिनो व्यक्त सर्वतश्ष निरामया: । ऐकात्म्यं नाम कश्चिद्धि कदाचिदुपपद्यते,आपलोग ज्ञानी हैं, यह बात सर्वविदित है। आप सब ओरसे नीरोग भी हैं; परंतु क्या आपलोगोंमेंसे कोई भी किसी भी कालमें एकात्मताको प्राप्त हुआ है? (जब एकमात्र अद्वितीय आत्मा अर्थात् ब्रह्मकी ही सत्ताका सर्वत्र बोध होने लगे, तब उसे एकात्मताका ज्ञान कहते हैं)
bhavanto jñānino vyaktaṃ sarvataś ca nirāmayāḥ | aikātmyaṃ nāma kaścid dhi kadācid upapadyate ||
Kapila said: “You are clearly people of knowledge, and it is well known; and you are also free from affliction on every side. Yet tell me—has any one among you, at any time, truly attained what is called ‘oneness of Self’, the realization in which the one, non-dual Self is discerned as the reality everywhere?”
कपिल उवाच
Educational Q&A
Kapila distinguishes reputation for learning and outward well-being from the highest inner attainment: aikātmya, the direct realization of the one, non-dual Self as the sole reality everywhere. The verse challenges the interlocutors to examine whether their ‘knowledge’ has matured into transformative realization.
In a didactic exchange in the Śānti Parva, Kapila addresses a group regarded as learned and healthy, and questions them pointedly about whether any of them has actually reached the culminating state of spiritual insight—oneness of Self—rather than merely possessing conventional learning.