Verse 2.474-475

Sanskrit text and transliteration:

अमन्वानस्य तद्ब्रह्म विदुषोऽपि भयङ्करम् ॥ ४७४ ॥
वेद्यवेत्तृत्वशून्यत्वाद्विद्वत्ताऽपि तमोमयी ।
रजतत्वादिवच्छुक्तावमन्वनो भवेदतः ॥ ४७५ ॥

amanvānasya tadbrahma viduṣo'pi bhayaṅkaram || 474 ||
vedyavettṛtvaśūnyatvādvidvattā'pi tamomayī |
rajatatvādivacchuktāvamanvano bhavedataḥ || 475 ||

English translation of verse 2.474-475:

Brahman is the source of fear even to the learned man who is unreflective. Since Brahman is neither the knower nor the known, a person who thinks that he is a knower is full of ignorance in the same way as it is ignorance to see silver in the nacre. Hence, such a person is unreflective.

Notes:

Brahman-Ātman is not an object which is known. If it were an object like a tree which is known, it would cease to be real. Nor is it a knower in the real sense of the term. Though we refer to it as the knower with a view to distinguish it from the not-Self which is known (vedya), even this mode of speech, strictly speaking, is not tenable. So long as there is vyavahāra, by presupposing objects which are known, we speak of Brahman-Ātman as the knower. Our mode of speech employing the logic of dichotomy between the Self as the knower and the not-Self as the known is meaningful only in the context of avidyā, which is presupposed in all our discourse and business of life. Brahman-Ātman by its very nature is free from attribute (nirguṇa), free from specification (nirviśeṣa). So it is neither the known nor the knower.

A person who claims that he knows the Self is really under illusion like the one who sees a piece of shell as silver, for his claim amounts to seeing in the Self what is not there. Just as there is no silverness in shell, so also there is no knownness (vedyatva) in the Self, which is nirguṇa. Such a person, though learned, is unreflective.