Mandukya Karika, verse 4.95

Text

अजे साम्ये तु ये केचिद्भविष्यन्ति सुनिश्चिताः ।
ते हि लोके महाज्ञानास्तच्च लोको न गाहते ॥ ९५ ॥

aje sāmye tu ye kecidbhaviṣyanti suniścitāḥ |
te hi loke mahājñānāstacca loko na gāhate || 95 ||

95. They alone are said to be of the highest wisdom who are firm in their conviction of the Seif unborn and ever the same. This, ordinary men cannot understand.

Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

That this knowledge of the Supreme Reality is incapable of being understood by the poor intellect, by the unwise,1 i.e., by persons of small intellect who are2 outside the knowledge of Vedānta,—is thus explained in this verse. Those few, even though3 they may be women or others, who are firm in their conviction of the nature of Ultimate Reality, unborn and undivided, are alone possessors of the highest wisdom. They alone know the essence of Reality. Others,4 i.e., persons of ordinary, intellect, cannot understand their ways, that is to say, the Supreme Reality realised by the wise. It is said in the Smṛti:—“Even the gods5 feel puzzled while trying to follow in the footsteps of those who leave no track behind, of those who realise themselves in all beings and who are always devoted to the welfare of all. They? leave6 no track behind like the birds flying through the sky.”