Bhagavad Gita 5.16ज्ञानेन तु तदज्ञानं येषां नाशितमात्मनः।तेषामादित्यवज्ज्ञानं प्रकाशयति तत्परम् ॥
jñānena tu tad ajñānaṁ yeṣhāṁ nāśhitam ātmanaḥ
teṣhām āditya-vaj jñānaṁ prakāśhayati tat param
Sanskrit recitation
Peace of the one who knows · 5.13–5.29 · Teaching
Translation
But to those whose ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self, like the sun, knowledge reveals the Supreme Brahman.
Hindi translation
परन्तु जिन्होंने अपने जिस ज्ञान-(विवक-) के द्वारा उस अज्ञानका नाश कर दिया है, उनका वह ज्ञान सूर्यकी तरह परमतत्त्व परमात्माको प्रकाशित कर देता है।
Meaning
When ignorance, the root cause of human sufferings, is annihilated by the knowledge of the Self, this knowledge illuminates the Supreme Brahman or that highest immortal Being, just as the sun illumines all the objects of this gross, physical universe.
After Swami Sivananda
Peace of the one who knows· 5.13–5.29→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 5.13Mentally renouncing all actions and being self-controlled, the embodied one happily rests…
- 5.14Neither does the Lord create agency nor actions for the world, nor union with the fruits…
- 5.15The Lord takes neither the demerit nor the merit of any; knowledge is enveloped by…
5.16But to those whose ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self, like the sun,…
- 5.17Their intellect absorbed in That, their self being That, established in That, with That as…
- 5.18Sages look with an equal eye on a Brahmana endowed with learning and humility, on a cow,…
- 5.19Even here in this world, those whose minds rest in reality overcome birth; Brahman is…
- 5.20Resting in Brahman, with a steady intellect and undeluded, the knower of Brahman neither…
- 5.21With the self unattached to external contacts, he finds happiness in the Self; with the…
- 5.22The enjoyments that arise from contact are only sources of pain, for they have a beginning…
- 5.23He who is able, while still here in this world, to withstand the impulse born out of…
- 5.24He who is happy within, who rejoices within, and who is illuminated within, that Yogi…
- 5.25The sages obtain absolute freedom or Moksha when their sins have been destroyed, their…
- 5.26Absolute freedom exists on all sides for those self-controlled ascetics who are free from…
- 5.27Shutting out all external contacts and fixing the gaze between the eyebrows, realizing the…
- 5.28With the senses, mind, and intellect ever controlled, having liberation as their supreme…
- 5.29He who knows Me as the enjoyer of sacrifices and austerities, the great Lord of all the…
Word-by-word→
- tu
- but
- tat
- that
- param
- Supreme Entity
- jñānam
- knowledge
- ajñānam
- ignorance
- jñānena
- by divine knowledge
- teṣhām
- their
- yeṣhām
- whose
- nāśhitam
- has been destroyed
- ātmanaḥ
- of the self
- āditya-vat
- like the sun
- prakāśhayati
- illumines
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- 2.48Perform action, O Arjuna, being steadfast in Yoga, abandoning attachment and balanced in…
- 13.30He sees, who sees that all actions are performed solely by Nature and that the Self is…
- 15.1The Blessed Lord said: They (the wise) speak of the indestructible peepul tree, with its…