Shloka 9
Jarā-Mṛtyu-anatikrama: Janaka–Pañcaśikha-saṃvāda
Aging and Death Cannot Be Overstepped
ज्ञानमव्यक्तमित्युक्त ज्ञेयो वै पज्चविंशक: । तथैव ज्ञानमव्यक्तं विज्ञाता पञजचविंशक:,ज्ञान अव्यक्त कहा गया है और परम पुरुष ज्ञेय बताया गया है, उसी प्रकार ज्ञान अव्यक्त है और उसका ज्ञाता परम पुरुष है
jñānam avyaktam ity uktaṃ jñeyo vai pañcaviṃśakaḥ | tathaiva jñānam avyaktaṃ vijñātā pañcaviṃśakaḥ ||
Vasiṣṭha nói: “Tri thức được gọi là Vô hiển (avyakta); và đối tượng cần được biết chính là ‘tattva thứ hai mươi lăm’—Đấng Tối Thượng (Puruṣa). Cũng vậy, tri thức là vô hiển, và kẻ biết tri thức ấy cũng là ‘tattva thứ hai mươi lăm’, Đấng Tối Thượng.”
वसिष्ठ उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse distinguishes between the unmanifest (avyakta) nature of ‘knowledge’ as a subtle principle and identifies the ultimate knowable and the ultimate knower as the ‘twenty-fifth’—the Supreme Puruṣa beyond the twenty-four constituents of prakṛti. It points to a highest reality that both grounds knowing and is itself the final object of realization.
In Śānti Parva’s philosophical instruction, Vasiṣṭha is teaching metaphysical discernment in a Sāṅkhya-like framework. He clarifies how ‘knowledge,’ the ‘knowable,’ and the ‘knower’ relate, culminating in the supremacy of the twenty-fifth principle (Puruṣa) as the ultimate referent of spiritual inquiry.