Shloka 80
नारद–शुक संवादः
Impermanence, Svabhāva, and Śuka’s Resolve for Yoga
यदा स केवलीभूत: षड्विंशमनुपश्यति । तदा स सर्वविद् विद्वान् न पुनर्जन्म विन्दति
yadā sa kevalībhūtaḥ ṣaḍviṁśam anupaśyati | tadā sa sarvavid vidvān na punarjanma vindati ||
Yājñavalkya said: “When the self, having become utterly solitary—free from all contact with Prakṛti, material nature—directly beholds the twenty-sixth principle (the Supreme beyond the manifest categories), then that knower becomes truly omniscient in wisdom and does not return again to birth in this world.”
याज़्ञवल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Liberation comes when the self becomes detached from prakṛti and directly realizes the supreme principle (the 'twenty-sixth'). Such realization culminates in freedom from saṁsāra—no further rebirth.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on peace and liberation, Yājñavalkya is explaining a metaphysical criterion of mokṣa: the moment of direct vision of the highest reality after complete inner detachment.