Shloka 27
Utkramaṇa-sthāna and Ariṣṭa-lakṣaṇa: Yājñavalkya’s Instruction on Departure Pathways and Mortality Signs
एवमप्यनुमानेन हालिड्रमुपल भ्यते । पजञ्चविंशतिमस्तात लिड्लेषु नियतात्मक:
evam apy anumānena hālīdram upalabhyate | pañcaviṁśatim astāt liṅgeṣu niyatātmakaḥ ||
Vasiṣṭha dijo: «Aun así, por inferencia se llega a aprehender el Sí mismo puro y consciente, distinto de todas las “señales” (liṅgas). Así como el sol, por iluminar lo visible, se entiende como otro que los objetos vistos, del mismo modo el Sí mismo—cuya naturaleza es conocimiento—permanece aparte de todo lo cognoscible porque lo revela. Hijo querido, ese Sí mismo es el vigésimo quinto principio, que penetra todas las condiciones encarnadas de manera fija y constante».
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The Self (ātman/puruṣa) is not an object among objects; it is the illuminator of all knowables. Therefore it is known not by direct sensory grasp but by inference—recognizing that whatever is revealed requires a revealer. This Self is identified as the twenty-fifth principle (puruṣa) that pervades all embodied states.
Vasiṣṭha is instructing a listener (addressed affectionately as ‘dear one’) in discriminative knowledge: distinguishing consciousness from the ‘liṅgas’—the marks or constituents associated with embodiment. He uses an inference-based analogy (and, in the accompanying gloss, the sun’s illumination) to argue that the knower is distinct from the known.