स वा एष एतस्मिन्त्स्वप्ने रत्वा चरित्वा, दृष्ट्वैव पुण्यं च पापं च, पुनः प्रतिन्यायं प्रतियोन्याद्रवति बुद्धान्तायैव; स यत्तत्र किञ्चित्पश्यत्यनन्वागतस्तेन भवति, असङ्गो ह्ययं पुरुष इति; एवमेवैतद्याज्ञवल्क्य, सोऽहं भगवते सहस्रं ददामि, अत ऊर्ध्वं विमोक्शायैव ब्रूहीति ॥ १६ ॥
sa vā eṣa etasmintsvapne ratvā caritvā, dṛṣṭvaiva puṇyaṃ ca pāpaṃ ca, punaḥ pratinyāyaṃ pratiyonyādravati buddhāntāyaiva; sa yattatra kiñcitpaśyatyananvāgatastena bhavati, asaṅgo hyayaṃ puruṣa iti; evamevaitadyājñavalkya, so’haṃ bhagavate sahasraṃ dadāmi, ata ūrdhvaṃ vimokśāyaiva brūhīti || 16 ||
16. After enjoying himself and roaming in the dream state, and merely seeing (the results of) good and evil, he comes back in the inverse order to his former condition, the waking state. He is untouched by whatever he sees in that state, for this infinite being is unattached. ‘It is just so, Yājñavalkya. I give you a thousand (cows), sir. Please instruct me further about liberation itself.’
Objection: In the preceding paragraph the non-attachment of the self has been stated as the cause of its inactivity in the passage, ‘For this infinite being is unattached.’ It has also been stated before that under the sway of past work ‘he goes wherever he likes’ (IV. iii. 12). Now desire is an attachment; hence the reason adduced—‘For this infinite being is unattached’—is fallacious.
Reply: It is not. How? This is how the self is unattached: On his return from the state of profound sleep, after enjoying himself and roaming in the dream state, and merely seeing (the results of) good and evil, he comes back in the inverse order to his former condition—all this is to be explained as before —the waking state; therefore this infinite being (self) is unattached. If he were attached, or smitten by desire, in the dream state, he would, on his return to the waking state, be affected by the evils due to that attachment.
Just as, being unattached in the dream state, he is not affected,, on his return to the waking state, by the evils due to attachment in the dream state, so he is not affected by them in the waking state either. This is expressed by the following text: