स यथा सैन्धवखिल्य उदके प्रास्तउदकमेवानुविलीयेत न हास्योद्ग्रहणायैवस्यात् ।यतो यतस्त्वाददीत लवणमेवैवं वा अर इदं महद्भूतमनन्तमपारं विज्ञान- घन एव ।एतेभ्यो भूतेभ्यः समुत्थाय तान्येवानु विनश्यति न प्रेत्य संज्ञास्ती- त्यरे ब्रवीमीति होवाच याज्ञवल्क्यः ॥ १२ ॥
In plain words
Here is the last picture, and the greatest one. Throw a lump of rock-salt into water, and it dissolves completely — you could never scoop it back out as salt again. Yet dip your hand in anywhere at all, and you will taste salt. It is just the same, dear one, with this vast Being: infinite, without a shore, nothing but one solid mass of awareness. It rises up out of the elements, and it sinks back into them again. Once it has gone, no separate, individual awareness remains. That is what I have to tell you, Maitreyī. So spoke Yājñavalkya.
Close to the Sanskrit
It is like this: as a lump of rock-salt, thrown into water, would dissolve into the water itself, and it would not be possible to extract it again as such — yet from wherever one might take [a portion], one would get salt indeed — so, O [Maitreyī], this great Being, infinite, boundless, is a single mass of consciousness alone. Having risen up out of these elements, it disappears back into them; after departing, there is no [more] distinct consciousness — this, O [Maitreyī], is what I say. Thus said Yājñavalkya.