आत्मानं चेद्विजानीयादयमस्मीति पूरुषः ।
किमिच्छन्कस्य कामाय शरीरमनुसंज्वरेत् ॥ १२ ॥ātmānaṃ cedvijānīyādayamasmīti pūruṣaḥ |
kimicchankasya kāmāya śarīramanusaṃjvaret || 12 ||12. If a man knows the Self as ‘I am this,’ then desiring what and for whose sake will he suffer in the wake of the body?
If a man, one in a thousand, knows the Self, which is his own as well as the Supreme Self, which knows the desires of all beings, which is in the heart (intellect), and is beyond the attributes of hunger etc. The word ‘if’ shows the rarity of Self-knowledge. Knows how? As ‘I am this’ Supreme Self, the witness of the perception of all beings, which has been described as ‘Not this, not this,’ and so on, than which there is no other seer, hearer, thinker and knower, which is always the same and is in all beings, and which is naturally eternal, pure, enlightened and free; desiring what other thing, of the nature of a result, distinct from his own Self, and for whose sake, for the need of what other person distinct from himself: Since he as the Self has nothing to wish for, and there is none other than himself for whose sake he may wish it, he being the Self of all, therefore desiring what and for whose sake will he suffer in the wake of the body—deviate from his nature, or become miserable, following the misery created by his limiting adjunct, the body, i.e. imbibe the afflictions of the body? For this is possible for the man who does not see the Self and consequently desires things other than It. He struggles desiring something for himself, something else for his son, a third thing for his wife, and so on, goes the round of births and deaths, and is diseased when his body is diseased. But all this is impossible for the man who sees everything as the Self. This is what the Śruti says.
Swami Vivekananda Says:
This rest, eternal, peaceful rest, I am catching a glimpse of now in this beautiful spot. “Having once known that the Atman alone, and nothing else, exists, desiring what, or for whose desire, shall you suffer misery about the body?”. I feel as if I had my share of experience in what they call “work”. I am finished, I am longing now to get out. “Out of thousands, but one strives to attain the Goal. And even of those who struggle hard, but few attain” (Gita, VII. 3); for the senses are powerful, they drag men down.[Source]
Sri Ramakrishna Says —
Master (To M.): “That which is Pure Atman is unattached. Maya, or avidya, is in It. In maya there are three gunas: sattva, rajas, and tamas. These three gunas also exist in the Pure Atman. But Atman Itself is unattached. If you throw a blue pill into the fire, you will see a blue flame. If you throw a red pill, you will see a red flame. But fire itself has no colour of its own.
“If you put a blue pill in water, the water will turn blue. Again, if you put alum in that water, it will regain its natural colour.
“A butcher was carrying a load of meat when he touched Sankara. Sankara exclaimed: ‘What! You have touched me!’ The butcher replied: “Venerable sir, neither have you touched me nor have I touched you. You are Pure Atman, unattached.’ Jadabharata said the same thing to King Rahugana.
“The Pure Atman is unattached, and one cannot see It. If salt is mixed with water, one cannot see the salt with the eyes.
“That which is the Pure Atman is the Great Cause, the Cause of the cause. The gross, the subtle, the causal, and the Great Cause. The five elements are gross. Mind, buddhi, and ego are subtle. Prakriti, the Primal Energy, is the cause of all these. Brahman, Pure Atman, is the Cause of the cause.
This Pure Atman alone is our real nature. What is jnana? It is to know one’s own Self and keep the mind in It. It is to know the Pure Atman.
“How long should a man perform his duties? As long as he identifies himself with the body, in other words, as long as he thinks he is the body. That is what the Gita says. To think of the body as the Atman is ajnana, ignorance. (BG 18.11) (Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)