Mahabharata — Shanti Parva, Shloka 4
ब्रह्मघोष-प्रवर्तनम्, अनध्याय-नियमः, वायु-मार्ग-वर्णनम्
Restoring Vedic Recitation, the Anadhyaya Rule, and the Taxonomy of Winds
अव्यक्तस्तु न जानीते पुरुषो ज्ञ: स्वभावत: । न मत्त: परमो<स्तीति नित्यमेवाभिमन्यते
avyaktas tu na jānīte puruṣo jñaḥ svabhāvataḥ | na mattaḥ paramo 'stīti nityam evābhimanyate ||
ယာဇ္ဉဝလ္က്യက ဆိုသည်– «အဗျက္တ (ပရကృతိ) သည် အမှန်တကယ် မသိနိုင်။ ထိုနှင့်မတူ ပုရုရှ (Puruṣa) သည် သဘာဝအရ သိသူဖြစ်၏။ သူသည် အမြဲတမ်း ‘ငါ့ထက် မြင့်မြတ်သော အရာမရှိ’ ဟု ယုံကြည်ထား၏»။
याज़्वल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse distinguishes unconscious Nature (Avyakta/Prakṛti), which does not ‘know’, from the conscious Self (Puruṣa), which is inherently the knower. It also highlights the Puruṣa’s self-assertion of supremacy, inviting reflection on how true discernment differs from egoic self-conceit.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on liberation-oriented philosophy, Yājñavalkya is explaining metaphysical categories—Prakṛti and Puruṣa—and their characteristics, as part of a broader teaching on discrimination (viveka) and the path to inner peace after the war.