Shloka 48
Nārāyaṇasya Guhya-nāmāni Niruktāni (Etymologies of Nārāyaṇa’s Secret Epithets) / नारायणस्य गुह्यनामानि निरुक्तानि
य इदं वेद तत्त्वेन स वेद प्रभवाप्ययौ । इन सब तत्त्वोंसे जो संयुक्त है, उसे पुरुष कहते हैं। जो पुरुष धर्म, अर्थ, काम, सुख- दुःख और जीवन-मरणके तत्त्वको ठीक-ठीक समझता है, वही उत्पत्ति और प्रलयके तत्त्वको भी यथार्थरूपसे जानता है ।।
ya idaṃ veda tattvena sa veda prabhavāpyayau |
那罗陀说：“凡如实了知此真实（tattva）者，亦了知生起与坏灭之理。与这些根本真实相应相合者，名为补卢沙（Puruṣa）。若能准确洞明达摩（dharma）、义利（artha）、欲乐（kāma）、乐与苦、生与死之真相，便也能如其本然地洞明成与灭之真相。又，凡关于知识所当知者，当依正统传承而学。为诸根所取者，名为显（vyakta）；超越诸根、凭推理而知者，名为未显（avyakta）。”
नारद उवाच
Educational Q&A
True knowledge of tattva (reality) includes understanding both prabhava (origination) and apyaya (dissolution). The verse also frames a basic epistemology: what the senses directly grasp is vyakta (manifest), while what is beyond the senses and known through inference is avyakta (unmanifest). It further emphasizes that such knowledge is properly learned through paramparā (a reliable lineage of instruction).
In Śānti Parva’s didactic setting, Nārada is instructing about fundamental categories of reality and knowledge—linking ethical-human aims (dharma, artha, kāma) and existential experiences (pleasure/pain, life/death) to a deeper metaphysical understanding of cosmic arising and dissolution, and clarifying how manifest and unmanifest objects are known.