Shloka 82
नारद–शुक संवादः
Impermanence, Svabhāva, and Śuka’s Resolve for Yoga
पश्यापश्यं यो न पश्येत् क्षेम्यं तत्त्वं च काश्यप । केवलाकेवलं चाद्यं पञ्चविंशं परं च यत्
paśyāpaśyaṃ yo na paśyet kṣemyaṃ tattvaṃ ca kāśyapa | kevalākevalaṃ cādyaṃ pañcaviṃśaṃ paraṃ ca yat ||
Yājñavalkya said: “O Kāśyapa, whoever fails to discern the distinction between the seer and the non-seer—between the conscious Self and the insentient field—does not truly behold the auspicious reality. Such a person also does not rightly understand the ‘kevala’ (the Self as pure, unattached), the ‘akevala’ (the Self as associated with Prakṛti), the primordial principle, the twenty-fifth (Puruṣa), and that which is supreme beyond all. Lacking this right knowledge, one remains caught in the cycle of repeated coming and going.”
याज़्ञवल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Liberating insight requires discriminating consciousness (the seer/Self) from insentient nature (the seen/Prakṛti and its products). One must also understand the Self as both ‘pure’ (kevala) and ‘associated’ (akevala) in lived experience, recognize the Sāṅkhya framework of principles (including the 25th, Puruṣa), and know the Supreme beyond them; without this right discernment, one remains bound to saṃsāra.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on peace and liberation, the sage Yājñavalkya addresses Kāśyapa, emphasizing philosophical discrimination and correct metaphysical knowledge as the basis for welfare and release from repeated birth and death.