21. Fools, because they lack in their powers of
discrimination superimpose on the Atman, the Absolute-Existence-Knowledge
(Sat-Chit), all the varied functions of the body and the senses, just as they
attribute blue colour and the like to the sky.
22. The tremblings that belong to the waters are attributed
through ignorance to the reflected moon dancing on it: likewise agency of
action, of enjoyment and of other limitations (which really belong to the mind)
are delusively understood as the nature of the Self (Atman).
23. Attachment, desire, pleasure, pain, etc., are perceived
to exist so long as Buddhi or mind functions. They are not perceived in deep
sleep when the mind ceases to exist. Therefore they belong to the mind alone
and not to the Atman.
24. Just as luminosity is the nature of the Sun, coolness of
water and heat of fire, so too the nature of the Atman is Eternity, Purity,
Reality, Consciousness and Bliss.
25. By the indiscriminate blending of the two – the
Existence-Knowledge-aspect of the Self and the thought-wave of the intellect –
there arises the notion of “I know”.
26. Atman never does anything and the intellect of its own accord
has no capacity to experience ‘I know’. But the individuality in us delusorily
thinks he is himself the seer and the knower.
27. Just as the person who regards a rope as a snake is
overcome by fear, so also one considering oneself as the ego (Jiva) is overcome
by fear. The ego-centric individuality in us regains fearlessness by realising
that It is not a Jiva but is Itself the Supreme Soul.
28. Just as a lamp illumines a jar or a pot, so also the
Atman illumines the mind and the sense organs, etc. These material-objects by
themselves cannot illumine themselves because they are inert.
29. A lighted-lamp does not need another lamp to illumine
its light. So too, Atman which is Knowledge itself needs no other knowledge to
know it.
30. By a process of negation of the conditionings (Upadhis)
through the help of the scriptural statement ‘It is not this, It is not this’,
the oneness of the individual soul and the Supreme Soul, as indicated by the
great Mahavakyas, has to be realised.
- By Adi Sankaracharya, 788-820 CE,
- Translated by Swami Chinmayananda
- Translated by Swami Chinmayananda