सः यथा सैन्धवखिल्यः उदके प्रास्तः उदकम् एव अनुविलीयेत न ह अस्य उद्ग्रहणाय एव स्यात् यतो यतस् तु आददीत लवणम् एवम् वा अरे इदम् महत् भूतम् अनन्तम् अपारम् विज्ञानघनः एव एतेभ्यः भूतेभ्यः समुत्थाय तानि एव अनुविनश्यति न प्रेत्य संज्ञा अस्ति इति अरे ब्रवीमि इति ह उवाच याज्ञवल्क्यः
saḥ yathā saindhavakhilyaḥ udake prāstaḥ udakam eva anuvilīyeta na ha asya udgrahaṇāya eva syāt yato yatas tu ādadīta lavaṇam evam vā are idam mahat bhūtam anantam apāram vijñānaghanaḥ eva etebhyaḥ bhūtebhyaḥ samutthāya tāni eva anuvinaśyati na pretya saṃjñā asti iti are bravīmi iti ha uvāca yājñavalkyaḥ
As a lump of salt thrown into water dissolves into the water and cannot be taken out again, but wherever you scoop, it is salt — so, my dear, this great Being is infinite, boundless, a solid mass of consciousness. Arising out of these elements, [a being] vanishes after them. After departing there is no [separate] awareness — so I say to you, my dear." Thus spoke Yājñavalkya.
73aff0f21f12 · published Jul 27, 2026, 12:55:53 AM UTC
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The culminating image is salt in water, known from the Chāndogya (6.13) but turned further: the great Being is "infinite, boundless, a solid mass of consciousness" (vijñāna-ghana): a seamless, lumpless massif of pure awareness, as brine is sheer saltiness without lumps. A separate being "arises out of the elements" — like a lump of salt out of brine — and, dissolving, "vanishes after them": na pretya saṁjñāsti — "after departing there is no awareness".
The words are terrible, and Yājñavalkya knows it — hence the seal: "so I say to you, my dear". What vanishes? Not the soul — he will explain this himself in a moment (2.4.13): what vanishes is saṁjñā, the separate, objective awareness of "I am this one, you are that one", put together out of the elements: the outline of the lump, not the saltiness of the salt. But heard straight off, the words sound like annihilation — and the Upaniṣad deliberately lets them sound so: with Maitreyī's next words it legitimises our shock, in order to resolve it by an exact distinction.