Shloka 25
Jarā-Mṛtyu-anatikrama: Janaka–Pañcaśikha-saṃvāda
Aging and Death Cannot Be Overstepped
मत्स्यो<न्यत्वं यथाज्ञानादुदकान्नाभिमन्यते । आत्मानं तद्वदज्ञानादन्यत्वं नैव वेद्म्यहम्
matsyo 'nyatvaṃ yathājñānād udakān nābhimanyate | ātmānaṃ tadvad ajñānād anyatvaṃ naiva vedmy aham ||
‘جس طرح مچھلی جہالت کے باعث اپنے آپ کو پانی سے جدا نہیں سمجھتی، اسی طرح جہالت کے سبب میں بھی اپنے آپ کو “غیر”—یعنی جدا—بالکل نہیں جانتا۔’
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
Ignorance makes one fail to recognize the absence of separateness: as a fish does not think itself apart from water, so the speaker says that due to ajñāna he does not know the Self as ‘other’—pointing toward the insight that true identity is not divided from its ground.
In Śānti Parva’s didactic setting, Vasiṣṭha is instructing through a vivid analogy. He uses the fish-in-water image to explain how mistaken cognition (ajñāna) shapes self-understanding and how deeper knowledge dissolves the sense of difference.