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 ||
Sabi ni Virūpa: Sa paglagpas sa Puruṣa, nararating ng tao ang Katotohanang inihahambing sa kalawakan. Doon, hindi umaabot ang apat na tanda at paraan ng pag-alam—tuwirang pagdama, paghihinuha, paghahambing, at patotoo ng salita (śabda); ni hindi rin sumisibol ang anim na alon—gutom, uhaw, dalamhati, pagkalito, katandaan, at kamatayan. Higit pa rito, lampas ito sa labing-anim na kasangkapan ng karanasang may katawan: limang pandama ng kaalaman, limang sangkap ng pagkilos, limang prāṇa, at ang isip.
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.