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 dit : «Ainsi encore, par inférence, on en vient à saisir le Soi pur, conscience sans mélange, distinct de toutes les “marques” (liṅga). De même que le soleil, parce qu’il illumine ce qui est vu, est compris comme autre que les objets visibles, de même le Soi—dont la nature même est connaissance—se tient à l’écart de tout ce qui peut être connu, puisqu’il le révèle. Ô cher enfant, ce Soi est le vingt-cinquième principe, qui pénètre toutes les conditions incarnées d’une manière fixe et 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.