Passage 14

“Now listen; I shall explain the eighth too. ‘Tamas-para’. Tamas means ‘Ajñāna’; para means ‘witness’. So it means the witness of Ajñāna. Brother-in-law! Since Māyā and Ajñāna are one and the same, one may also think of the Paramātma as the one beyond such Māyā. Brother-in-law! Close your eyes once and look, and you will know what is there. When the eyes are closed, what is there? All is one darkness. Yes or no? How did you know that darkness? If you did not know it, how can you call it darkness? There, the darkness is one thing and the seeing is another; there are two, are there not? If you yourself were the darkness, how could you see? Since you are seeing, you are not the darkness. You are the witness who saw the darkness. Brother-in-law! Consider one more thing. At times a man goes on blaming himself: ‘I am an ajñāni; I know nothing.’ If he really were an ajñāni, where did the Jñāna that knows ‘I am an ajñāni’ come from? How did it come? Ajñāna is the seen, Jñāna is the seer; you are only the witness who sees Ajñāna, and you are not Ajñāna. In just this way, whoever contemplates the eight descriptions spoken of above – that is right contemplation of the svarūpa, brother-in-law!”

Arjuna asked, “Kṛṣṇa! Is it enough merely to contemplate in this way, or must something more be added to these?”