Chapter 2: Sānkhya Yoga – Yoga of Contemplation on Self: Verse 25
अव्यक्तोऽयमचिन्त्योऽयमविकार्योऽयमुच्यते ।
तस्मादेवं विदित्वैनं नानुशोचितुमर्हसि ॥
avyakto’yam-acintyo’yam-avikāryo’yam-ucyate
tasmād-evaṃ viditvainaṃ nānuśocitum-arhasi – 2.25
This Self is said to be indistinct, unthinkable, changeless. Knowing this to be so, you ought not to grieve.
Chapter 2: Sānkhya Yoga – Yoga of Contemplation on Self - Verse 25
Ma Gurupriya
Krishna takes Arjuna step by step to the Self. Space is all-pervading, as we can understand. In what way is Self different from space?
Space is distinct to our senses. We distinguish the objects only due to the space in between and surrounding them.Objects are situated in space. Objects and space are equally visible. We can also understand that space is allpervading.‘Unthinkability’ is thus not applicable to space.
But the Self is indistinct to senses and mind alike. The seeker needs a great deal of exposure and rumination to gain a clear idea of the Self, a difficulty not there in the case of space.
Space is also changeless, as the Self is. But Self is sentient. Mind is not able to grasp it, because it is its own source, and hence unthinkable, as Upanishads declare:“Wherefrom words along with the mind recoil”. What an apt description!
