प्राज्ञश्चेतनमात्रस्त्वं न देहस्त्वं जडात्मकः । अन्येन चेतसा तत्ते चेत्यत्वं क्वेव विद्यते ॥ २८ ॥
prājñaścētanamātrastvaṁ na dēhastvaṁ jaḍātmakaḥ | anyēna cētasā tattē cētyatvaṁ kvēva vidyatē || 28 ||
Translation
You are the knower, consciousness alone; you are not the body, which is inert. How then can you be something made aware by another consciousness?
Word by word
- prājñaś
- (prājñaḥ) the knower
- cētana
- consciousness
- mātras
- (mātraḥ) alone
- tvaṁ
- you
- na
- not
- dēhas
- (dehaḥ) the body
- jaḍa
- inert
- ātmakaḥ
- by nature
- anyēna
- by another
- cētasā
- consciousness
- tat
- then
- tē
- of you
- cētyatvaṁ
- being made aware
- kva
- how
- iva
- then
- vidyatē
- can be
Meaning
The depth of the sarga. Rāma could still ask: who drives the mind? The commentary cites the Upaniṣad: he who dwells in the mind, whom the mind does not know. Is there not another Self, then, who moves me? Vasiṣṭha answers that you are that. Prājña, the knower, is what you are, and the body is what you have. Consciousness does not need to be lit by anything else. So "who is making me do this?" has no outside answer. The one looking for the driver is the only light in the room. This is the first glimpse in this discussion of what the whole text is for.