Chapter 1
Story Analysis
Now from the sixteenth verse onward, the description of Self-knowledge begins.
Verse 16
Yama says:
“This imperishable is Brahman. This imperishable is the Supreme. Whoever truly knows this imperishable—whatever he desires, that he obtains.”
Before beginning the actual explanation of the Self, Yama says: call it Brahman, Parabrahman, Paramatma, the Supreme State—whatever name we use, its nature is the same. Whoever knows this Reality attains exactly what he seeks.
And the wonder is that the one who seeks the Supreme wishes for nothing else at all. One who desires God desires nothing of the world.
That is the sixteenth verse.
Verse 17
Yama continues:
“This alone is the highest support, the supreme refuge. Knowing this support well, a seeker becomes glorified in Brahma-loka.”
Here he praises Self-knowledge itself. This Reality is the only true support. Whoever realizes it becomes glorified in “Brahma-loka.”
This doesn’t refer to some external heaven. Brahma-loka here means the inner state in which one realizes the Self. When one experiences one’s true nature, the seeker feels blessed, uplifted, and grateful.
This is the seventeenth verse.
Verse 18
This verse is almost the same as a verse in the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita—perhaps this came first and the Gita later adopted it.
Yama says:
“The wise, eternal Self is neither born nor does it die. It did not come from anything, nor did anything arise from it. It is unborn, eternal, changeless, ancient—without growth or decay. Even when the body is slain, it is not destroyed.”
This is the same meaning we read in the Gita. The Self—Paramatma or Atma—is not born, does not die, is neither effect nor cause, is eternal and unchanging, and remains untouched even when the body perishes.
This is verse eighteen.
Verse 19
Again as in the Gita, Yama says:
“If someone thinks he can kill, or someone else thinks he is killed, both are ignorant of the truth. The Self neither kills nor is killed.”
The Self cannot be slain, nor does it slay anyone.
That is nineteenth verse.
Verse 20
Yama says:
“The Supreme who dwells in the heart-cave of this living being is smaller than the smallest and greater than the greatest. Only a rare seeker—free from desires and free from sorrow—can see this glory of the Supreme by the grace of God.”
This is a beautiful verse. Like the Gita, it describes the nature of the Supreme:
smaller than the smallest, greater than the greatest, dwelling within the cave of the heart.
Only one who is desireless and free from sorrow can perceive it—and that too through God’s grace.
This is the twentieth verse.
Verse 21
Yama says:
“He reaches far while sitting, and travels everywhere while lying down. Who other than me can truly know that God, who is not intoxicated by His own greatness?”
He says this because only the one who knows death truly knows the Self. If I understand death—that the body dies but the Self does not—then I immediately understand the nature of the Self. But we avoid thinking about death, we fear it.
One who grasps that the body dies but the Self does not is able to understand the Self: deathless, eternal, imperishable.
Yama also says something rare and beautiful here:
God does not become intoxicated by His own power.
We become arrogant with even a little wealth or success, but God, who possesses all glory, does not.
Then another deep point:
“He reaches far while sitting; He moves everywhere while lying down.”
This indicates that contradictory qualities coexist in the Supreme. Just as earlier He was described as both smaller than the smallest and greater than the greatest, here He is described as both still and moving.
Such contradictions apply only to the Supreme, never to anything else.
This completes the twenty-first verse.
Verse 22
Yama continues:
“In these unstable, perishable bodies, the bodiless and unchanging Supreme remains established. Knowing this great, all-pervading Self, the wise never grieve.”
The Supreme dwells within the perishable body yet remains itself imperishable.
The body is changeful; the Self is changeless.
The body is unstable; the Self is steady.
These opposite qualities exist together. The wise who realize this no longer grieve.
This is the twenty-second verse.
Verse 23
Yama says:
“This Self cannot be obtained by lectures, nor by intellect, nor by much hearing. It can be attained only by the one whom It chooses. To that seeker the Self reveals Its true nature.”
A very important teaching.
We think that by listening, reading, or using intellect we will attain the Self. But the verse says the Supreme is gained only by one whom It accepts—one who has become fit.
And who becomes fit?
One whose mind has become pure, simple, and subtle.
A mind that is impure cannot accept the qualities of the Supreme, such as “subtler than the subtle,” “greater than the great,” “all-pervading,” etc.
A mind that will not accept cannot realize—and therefore the Supreme does not “accept” such a mind.
Self-realization is mutual acceptance:
the seeker accepts the Supreme, and the Supreme accepts the seeker.
Just as Kabir says:
“At first I thought the drop falls into the ocean.
Now I know the ocean falls into the drop.”
The seeker does not reach God alone—God also takes a step toward the seeker.
Like the story of the footprints: God says, “These are My footsteps; I carry you.”
This is the twenty-third verse.
Verse 24
Yama says:
“The Self cannot be attained by one who has not given up wrong conduct, nor by one without self-control, nor by one whose mind is restless.”
Here he states the same teaching in a negative way.
Earlier he said a pure, calm, controlled mind realizes the Self.
Now he says:
– One with bad conduct cannot attain it.
– One without sense-control cannot attain it.
– One with an unpeaceful or restless mind cannot attain it.
The same teaching, expressed oppositely.
This is verse twenty-four.
Verse 25
Yama concludes:
“At the time of dissolution, all beings—including the highest, like Brahmana and Kshatriya—become His food. Even death itself becomes His cooked dish. Who can truly know such a Supreme?”
Earlier he spoke about creation; now about dissolution.
At dissolution everything is absorbed in Him; even death itself merges into Him.
Such a Supreme cannot be fully grasped.
We can understand His creation to some extent, but the One into whom even death dissolves—no one can fully comprehend Him.
We must keep an open hand, never claim, “I have understood Him completely.”
Thus the twenty-fifth verse ends, and with it the second Vallī of the first chapter closes.