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 dit : «Nul être ne peut connaître en vérité comment cet (Être suprême) vient et s’en va parmi les créatures incarnées. Je médite sur ce mouvement, selon l’ordre requis, par les disciplines du Sāṅkhya et du Yoga, et pourtant je ne saisis pas pleinement cette voie la plus haute. Toutefois, selon ce que j’ai discerné au-dedans, je décrirai cette Personne éternelle.»
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.