एकधैवानुद्रष्टव्यमेतदप्रमयं ध्रुवम् ।
विरजः पर आकाशादज आत्मा महान्ध्रुवः ॥ २० ॥ekadhaivānudraṣṭavyametadapramayaṃ dhruvam |
virajaḥ para ākāśādaja ātmā mahāndhruvaḥ || 20 ||20. It should be realised in one form only, (for) It is unknowable and eternal. The Self is taintless, beyond the (subtle) ether, birthless, infinite and constant.
Since It is such, therefore It should be realised in one form only, viz. as homogeneous Pure Intelligence, without any break in it, like the éther; for It, this Brahman, is unknowable, owing to the unity of everything (in Brahman). One is known by another; but It is one, hence unknowable. Eternal, unchangeable, or immovable. It may be objected: Surely this is contradictory—to say that It is unknowable, and also that It is known; ‘It is known,’ means, that It is cognised by the means of knowledge, and ‘unknowable’ is the denial of that. To this we reply: It is all right, for only this much is denied that It, like other things, is known by any other means than scriptural evidence. Other things are cognised by the ordinary means independent of scriptural evidence; but the truth of the Self cannot thus be known by any other means of knowledge but that. The scriptures too describe It merely by the negation of the activities of the subject, the evidences of knowledge, and so on, in such terms as these: When everything is the Self, what should one see, . . . know, and through what?—and not by resorting to the usual function of a sentence in which something is described by means of names. Therefore even in the scriptures the Self is not presented like heaven or Mount Meru, for instance, for it is the very Self of those that present it. A presentation by someone has for its object something to be presented, and this is possible only when there is difference.
The knowledge of Brahman too means only the cessation of the identification with extraneous things (such as the body). The relation of identity with It has not to be directly established, for it is already there. Everybody always has that identity with It, but it appears to be related to something else. Therefore the scriptures do not enjoin that identity with Brahman should be established, but that the false identification with things other than That should stop. When the identification with other things is gone, that identity with one’s own Self which is natural, becomes isolated; this is expressed by the statement that the Self is known. In Itself It is unknowable—not comprehended through any means. Hence both statements are consistent.
The Self is taintless, i.e. free from the impurities of good and evil, beyond the ether, subtler, or more pervasive, than even the unmanifested ether, birthless—the negation of birth implies that of the five succeeding changes of condition also, for these originate from birth—infinite, vaster than anything else, and constant, indestructible.