Shloka 77
नारद–शुक संवादः
Impermanence, Svabhāva, and Śuka’s Resolve for Yoga
यदा तु मन्यते5न्यो5हमन्य एष इति द्विज: । तदा स केवलीभूत: षड्विंशमनुपश्यति
yadā tu manyate 'nyo 'ham anya eṣa iti dvijaḥ | tadā sa kevalībhūtaḥ ṣaḍviṁśam anupaśyati ||
Pero cuando un dvija, un “nacido dos veces”, llega a pensar: “Yo soy uno, y esto otro es diferente”, entonces, aislado en su mirada, percibe sólo el vigésimo sexto principio: contempla la realidad a través del prisma de la separación, y no con la intuición no dual.
याज़्ञवल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns that the moment one fixes the thought “I am separate and the other is separate,” one’s vision becomes narrowed; such a person, isolated in a dualistic standpoint, apprehends reality only as a limited principle (the ‘twenty-sixth’), rather than as the deeper unity taught in liberation-oriented discourse.
In Śānti Parva’s philosophical instruction, Yājñavalkya explains how a seeker’s inner conception shapes perception: adopting the ‘I vs. other’ notion leads to a constrained, isolating view of the self and the world, contrasted with the liberating vision that transcends such division.