Shloka 125
Adhyāya 199: Karma–Jñāna Causality and the Nirguṇa Brahman
Manu’s Instruction
चतुर्भिलक्षणैहीनं तथा षड्भि: सषोडशै: । पुरुषं तमतिक्रम्प आकाशं प्रतिपद्यते
caturbhir lakṣaṇair hīnaṁ tathā ṣaḍbhiḥ saṣoḍaśaiḥ | puruṣaṁ tam atikramya ākāśaṁ pratipadyate ||
Virūpa dit : En transcendant ce Puruṣa, on atteint la Réalité comparée à l’espace. Là, les quatre marques et moyens de connaissance—perception directe, inférence, comparaison et témoignage de la parole (śabda)—n’atteignent pas; et les six vagues—faim, soif, chagrin, égarement, vieillesse et mort—ne se lèvent pas. C’est encore au-delà des seize instruments de l’expérience incarnée : les cinq sens de connaissance, les cinq organes d’action, les cinq prāṇa et le mental.
विरूप उवाच
Educational Q&A
Liberation is described as transcending the conditioned Puruṣa and realizing an unconditioned reality compared to space (ākāśa), where ordinary means of knowledge and the entire psycho-physical apparatus (senses, prāṇas, mind) do not operate, and where existential afflictions like hunger, grief, aging, and death do not arise.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction-oriented setting, Virūpa speaks a doctrinal verse outlining a hierarchy of realization: one goes beyond the Puruṣa and attains the ‘space-like’ ultimate, characterized negatively as beyond pramāṇas/definitions, beyond the six ‘waves’ of suffering, and beyond the sixteen instruments of embodied experience.