Chapter 13 - Verse 28

He who realises that the Īśvara described in the last preceding verse is the same—i. e., he who sees that he dwells in all creatures alike—destroys not his own self by himself. Because he does not destroy the self, he reaches the Supreme Goal, he attains moksha.*

Knowledge destroys ignorance, and with it all evil is destroyed. On the destruction of nescience (ajnana) and false knowledge (mithya-jnana), the two veil that have hidden the true nature of the Self, the sage attains the highest goal, the highest end of man, the Supreme Bliss (Paramananda)—A.

(Objection):—No living being whatever destroys itself by itself. Where then is the necessity for the denial “He destroys not the self by the self,” any more than for the prohibition † “fire should be consecrated not on earth, not in the sky, not in heaven” (Tait. Sam. 5-2-7)?

The prohibition of the construction of the altar on Earth has a meaning, because it is possible to erect one on earth. But the prohibition of the construction of altars in this sky and in the heaven has no meaning, as there is no occasion for the procedure. It has been therefore determined that the prohibition in this latter case should not be understood literally. Similarly we cannot understand the denial here literally.—A.

(Answer) :—This objection does not apply here; for, the necessity may be explained on the ground that ignorant men are guilty of ignoring the Self. An ignorant man ignores the Self who is quite manifest to all, self-manifested, and directly visible, and he regards the not-Self (physical body, etc.) as himself. Having performed good and evil works (dharma and a-dharma), he kills even this self (the physical body, etc.) which he had accepted and accepts another new self; he kills this again and accepts another and so on; thus he goes on killing every new self that he has accepted. An ignorant man is, accordingly, a slayer of the self. Even the real Self is always killed by avidya, inasmuch as there is no perceptible effect of His existence. Thus, all ignorant men are but the slayers of the self. He who, on the other hand, sees the Self as described above, kills not self by self in either of the ways shown above. Wherefore, he reaches the supreme good; he reaps the fruit spoken of above.

Prakriti acts, not the Self.

It has been said that he who sees the Lord (the Self) remaining the same in every being destroys not the self by the self. This may be objected to on the ground that there are many selfs, differentiated by differences in their respective deeds (karma) and qualities. To remove this objection the Lord says :