पृथिवी एव यस्य आयतनम् अग्निः लोकः मनः ज्योतिः यः वै तं पुरुषम् विद्यात् सर्वस्यात्मनः परायणम् सः वै वेदिता स्यात् याज्ञवल्क्य वेद वा अहं तं पुरुषम् सर्वस्यात्मनः परायणम् यम् आत्थ यः एव अयम् शारीरः पुरुषः सः एषः वदैव शाकल्य तस्य का देवता इति अमृतम् इति ह उवाच
pṛthivī eva yasya āyatanam agniḥ lokaḥ manaḥ jyotiḥ yaḥ vai taṃ puruṣam vidyāt sarvasyātmanaḥ parāyaṇam saḥ vai veditā syāt yājñavalkya veda vā ahaṃ taṃ puruṣam sarvasyātmanaḥ parāyaṇam yam āttha yaḥ eva ayam śārīraḥ puruṣaḥ saḥ eṣaḥ vadaiva śākalya tasya kā devatā iti amṛtam iti ha uvāca
"He who knows that person whose dwelling is the earth, whose world is fire, whose light is the mind, the final resort of every self — he is truly a knower, Yājñavalkya!" — "I know that person of whom you speak, the final resort of every self: he is the bodily person. Speak on, Śākalya: who is his deity?" — "The immortal," he said.
41b8f1fb6678 · publicado 27 jul 2026, 1:06:37 UTC
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Śākalya changes his tactics: having lost the counting, he begins a series of prepared trap-formulas: "whose dwelling is the earth, whose world is fire, whose light is the mind…" — "do you know such a person?" The calculation is that his opponent will stumble in the web of indirect definitions. Yājñavalkya does not stumble once: "I know: he is the bodily person" — and each time strikes back: "and who is his deity?" (kā devatā — what is his highest point, into which he flows?).
That is how all eight rounds are built: Śākalya describes a person by his dwelling — Yājñavalkya recognises him and demands that the summit be named. Here, in the first round, the bodily person (flesh from earth, warmed by the fire of digestion, lit by the mind) is traced up to "the immortal": the mortal body flows into immortality — amṛta, the essence of the food out of which flesh is made. The last and most dangerous duel of the night has begun.