𑌹𑌸𑍍𑌤𑌾𑌮𑌲𑌕𑍀𑌯𑌮𑍍 (𑌹𑌸𑍍𑌤𑌾𑌮𑌲𑌕𑌸𑍍𑌤𑍋𑌤𑍍𑌰𑌮𑍍)

Meaning:(Shankara asks:) Who are you, O child? Whose are you? Where are you going? What is your name, and from where have you come? Tell me all this, dear boy — you delight me, you swell my affection.

Meaning:(The boy replies:) I am not a man, nor a god or yaksha; not a brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya or shudra; neither a celibate student, householder, forest-hermit nor mendicant — I am of the nature of pure Self-knowledge itself.

Meaning:The cause behind the working of the mind, eyes and the other senses, yet free of every limiting condition and subtle as space — like the sun that is the impartial cause of all activity in the world — that Self, whose very nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Meaning:That one, motionless reality, of the nature of eternal consciousness as heat is inseparable from fire, depending upon which the mind, eyes and senses — themselves insentient — carry out their functions — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Meaning:The image of a face seen in a mirror has no real existence apart from the face itself; just so the individual soul is only the reflection of Consciousness in the intellect — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Meaning:As, when the mirror is absent and the reflection ceases, the one face still remains free of all imagining, so the reality that remains without any reflection when the intellect is withdrawn — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Meaning:That which is itself ever apart from the mind, eyes and senses, yet is the very mind of the mind and eye of the eye, whose true nature the mind and senses can never reach — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Meaning:The one who shines by his own light, pure consciousness, who though of one nature appears as many in the many intellects — as the one sun appears multiplied in many bowls of water — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Meaning:As the sun, the light of countless eyes, does not illumine objects one after another but reveals all at once, so the one awareness illumines the many intellects together — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Meaning:Just as the eye grasps a form lit by the sun but cannot grasp the sun that is not itself lit by another, so that one by whose shining the eye itself is made to function — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Meaning:As the one sun appears as many in rippling waters yet remains undivided in still waters, ever one in its real nature — appearing divided among restless intellects yet one in the wise — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Meaning:As a person whose sight is veiled by clouds thinks, in his folly, that the cloud-covered sun has lost its light, so to the deluded vision the ever-free Self appears as though bound — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Meaning:The one consciousness threaded through all things, which no object can touch or taint, ever pure and clear like space itself — that Self, whose nature is eternal awareness, am I.

Meaning:As the apparent difference among genuine gems is due only to their settings, so the apparent difference (in You) is due only to the differing intellects; and as the reflected moonbeams seem to quiver only because of the moving water, so the seeming restlessness, O Lord, is but apparent in You.