स यथा सैन्धवघनोऽनन्तरोऽबाह्यः कृत्स्नो रसघन एव ।एवं वा अरेऽयमात्मानन्तरोऽबाह्यः कृत्स्नः प्रज्ञानघन एव ।एतेभ्यो भूतेभ्यः समुत्थाय तान्येवानुविनयति ।न प्रेत्य संज्ञास्तीत्यरे ब्रवीमि ।इति होवाच याज्ञवल्क्यः ॥बृह. ४,५.१३ ॥
In plain words
As a lump of salt is without inside or outside, wholly a single mass of savour, so this Self is without inside or outside, wholly a single mass of consciousness. Arising out of these elements, it vanishes again into them. When it has departed there is no more consciousness — this is what I say, my dear." So said Yājñavalkya.
The commentators
Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣadbhāṣyam· bhāṣya
सर्वकार्यप्रलये विद्यानिमित्ते, सैन्धवघनवत् अनन्तरः अबाह्यः कृत्स्नः प्रज्ञानघन एक आत्मा अवतिष्ठते; पूर्वं तु भूतमात्रासंसर्गविशेषात् लब्धविशेषविज्ञानः सन्; तस्मिन् प्रविलापिते विद्यया विशेषविज्ञाने तन्निमित्ते च भूतसंसर्गे न प्रेत्य संज्ञा अस्ति— इत्येवं याज्ञवल्क्येनोक्ता ॥
In plain words
When every effect dissolves back through knowledge, what remains is like a solid lump of salt — no inside, no outside, whole, nothing but a single mass of awareness. Before that, you seemed to have all sorts of separate knowledge, simply because you were tangled up with particular things. Once knowledge dissolves that tangle and the separate knowledge it produced, there is no separate awareness left after death. That is exactly what Yājñavalkya taught.
Close to the Sanskrit
At the dissolution of all effects, [that dissolution] having knowledge as its cause, like a lump of rock-salt — without interior, without exterior, entire, a single mass of consciousness — the Self alone remains. Whereas before, it possessed differentiated knowledge, on account of a specific association with the mere elements; when that differentiated knowledge, together with the association with the elements that is its cause, is dissolved by knowledge, there is no awareness after death — thus was it stated by Yājñavalkya.