Shloka 7
Adhyāya 353 — Kathā-prāmāṇya (Authority of Transmission) and the Brāhmaṇa’s Ascetic Resolve
नागतिर्न गतिस्तस्य ज्ञेया भूतेषु केनचित् । सांख्येन विधिना चैव योगेन च यथाक्रमम्
nāgatir na gatis tasya jñeyā bhūteṣu kenacit | sāṅkhyena vidhinā caiva yogena ca yathākramam |
Bhīṣma said: “No being can truly know that (Supreme) one’s coming or going among embodied creatures. I reflect upon that movement in due order through the disciplines of Sāṅkhya and of Yoga, yet I still cannot fully grasp that highest course. Even so, according to what I have inwardly discerned, I shall describe that eternal Person.”
पितामह उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse stresses that the Supreme Reality’s ‘coming and going’ in relation to embodied beings is ultimately beyond ordinary knowing. Even with Sāṅkhya’s analysis and Yoga’s disciplined contemplation, one may approach but not fully capture that highest truth; nevertheless, one should speak from sincere inner discernment and tradition about the eternal Person.
In Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing Yudhiṣṭhira on liberation-oriented knowledge. Here he prefaces a description of the eternal Person by admitting the limits of conceptual understanding, while affirming that he will present what he has realized through Sāṅkhya and Yoga.