याज्ञवल्क्येति होवाच, यत्रायं पुरुषो म्रियत उदस्मात्प्राणाः क्रामन्त्यहो3 नेति; नेति होवाच याज्ञवल्क्योः, अत्रैव समवनीयन्ते, स उच्छ्वयति, आध्मायति, आध्मातो मृतः शेते ॥ ११ ॥
yājñavalkyeti hovāca, yatrāyaṃ puruṣo mriyata udasmātprāṇāḥ krāmantyaho3 neti; neti hovāca yājñavalkyoḥ, atraiva samavanīyante, sa ucchvayati, ādhmāyati, ādhmāto mṛtaḥ śete || 11 ||
11. ‘Yājñavalkya,’ said he, ‘when this (liberated) man dies, do his organs go up from him, or do they not?’ ‘No,’ replied Yājñavalkya, ‘(they) merge in him only. The body swells, is inflated, and in that state lies dead.’
‘When, after death has been swallowed by another death, viz. the realisation of the Supreme Self, this liberated man of realisation dies, do his organs such as those of speech, called the Grahas, and the Atigrahas such as name, which in the form of impressions are in him and impel him to action, go up from him, the dying knower of Brahman, or do they not?’ ‘No,’ replied Yājñavalkya, ‘they do not. The organs and objects, becoming one with the Supreme Self, attain identity with, or merge in him only, their cause, the man of realisation who is the Reality of the Supreme Brahman—like waves in the ocean.’ The following passage from another Śruti shows the dissolution of the organs, designated by the word ‘digit,’ in the Supreme Self, ‘So do these sixteen digits of the seer, which have the Self as their merging place, dissolve on reaching It’ (Pr. VI. 5). Here their identification with the Supreme Self is shown. Does not the man die then? ‘No, it is the body that dies, for it swells, is inflated by the external air like a pair of bellows, and in that state lies dead, motionless.’ The gist of the passage is that the liberated man, after his bondage has been destroyed, does not go anywhere.