Question and answer 17

How can it be that the very Self shining in the Heart is Brahman?

Think of a lamp's flame: there is a small empty space inside it, and the ordinary space of the world fills that space and the space all around the flame in exactly the same way — no real difference, no real boundary between them. It is the same with the light of the Self in the Heart: the space of pure knowing within that light, and everything outside it, are filled the very same way, without difference, without limit. That is exactly what is meant by Brahman.

How is it said that it is the Self itself that shines in the Heart as Brahman?

Just as the elemental space present in the empty region inside a lamp's flame fills, without difference and without limit, both the inside and the outside of that flame equally — so too the space of knowledge present within the light of the Self, in the Heart, fills, without difference and without limit, both the inside and the outside of that light of the Self. This itself is what is called Brahman.