Shloka 87
ज्ञानान्मोक्षो जायते राजसिंह नास्त्यज्ञानादेवमाहुनरिन्द्र । तस्माऊउज्ञानं तत्त्वतो<न्वेषितव्यं येनात्मान॑ मोक्षयेज्जन्ममृत्यो:
yājñavalkya uvāca | jñānān mokṣo jāyate rājasimha nāsty ajñānād evam āhur narendra | tasmād u jñānaṃ tattvato'nveṣitavyaṃ yenātmānaṃ mokṣayej janma-mṛtyoḥ ||
ज्ञानान्मोक्षो जायते राजसिंह! नाज्ञानात्—इति प्राहुर्विद्वांसः। तस्मात् तत्त्वतो ज्ञानमन्वेषितव्यं, येनात्मानं जन्ममृत्योर्बन्धनात् प्रमोचयेत्॥
याज़्वल्क्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
Liberation (mokṣa) is said to arise from true knowledge (jñāna), not from ignorance (ajñāna). Hence one should earnestly investigate reality (tattvataḥ) so that the self may be freed from the cycle of birth and death.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on peace and liberation, the sage Yājñavalkya addresses a king with an honorific epithet (“lion among kings”), urging him toward philosophical inquiry and self-knowledge as the means to transcend saṃsāra.