Shloka 40
Jarā-Mṛtyu-anatikrama: Janaka–Pañcaśikha-saṃvāda
Aging and Death Cannot Be Overstepped
एवं परमसम्बोधात् पञज्चविंशो<नुबुद्धवान् । अक्षरत्वं नियच्छेत त्यक्त्वा क्षरमनामयम्
evaṁ paramasambodhāt pañcaviṁśo’nubuddhavān | akṣaratvaṁ niyacchet tyaktvā kṣaram anāmayam ||
Vasiṣṭha said: “Thus, through the highest awakening of discernment, the twenty-fifth principle—the Self—having realized its own pure nature beyond the twenty-four constituents, abandons the perishable condition and attains the imperishable, stainless state.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
By supreme discernment one realizes the Self as the twenty-fifth principle beyond the twenty-four material constituents; relinquishing identification with the perishable (kṣara), one becomes established in the imperishable, unailing state (akṣara), which is a mokṣa-oriented vision.
Vasiṣṭha is instructing on liberation-oriented knowledge: he summarizes how realization (parama-sambodha) leads the seeker to recognize the Self’s transcendence over the tattvas and to shift from the mutable condition to the imperishable reality.