Prose-section 18
In plain words
The teacher now turns to the Self, knowledge of which brings release. It is the immediately evident reality of “I,” spontaneously present as “I, I.” Distinct from the five sheaths, it witnesses waking, dream and deep sleep: mental activity is known when present, and its absence is known in sleep. Everything is known through it; nothing makes it known as an object. It illumines the intellect and pervades the world without being illumined or enclosed by either. Body, senses, mind and intellect function in its presence. Ego, body, objects and pleasures are all known to it as a pot is known. Life and speech move through its presence. This inner Self is primordial, continuous, undivided, complete, blissful and one—the witness in every body. Shining in the heart-cave, subtle and pervasive like unmanifest space, it illumines experience as the sun illumines the world. It is present throughout mental and bodily activity, as fire pervades heated iron, yet it neither acts nor changes. Birth, growth, decline and death do not belong to it. The breaking of a pot does not destroy space; bodily death does not destroy the Self. Beyond causal maya and its effects, it is pure knowledge, free of distinctions and immediately evident as “I, I.” With collected attention, know “This I is Brahman.” Through this clear recognition of yourself in yourself, cross the ocean whose waves are birth and death, and abide fulfilled as Brahman.
Word for word
Disciple, I now explain the nature of the supreme Self, by knowing which a person becomes free of samsara’s bondage and attains absoluteness. The Self is the reality indicated by the spontaneously shining experience “I, I”: the witness of the three states, distinct from the five sheaths, knowing the presence of mental modifications in waking and dream and their absence in deep sleep. It is the reality meant by the word “I.” It itself sees everything, while none of those things sees it; it illumines intellect and the like, while they do not illumine it; it pervades the world, while the world does not pervade it. By its light all these insentient things become manifest. Through its mere presence body, senses, mind and intellect engage in their respective functions as though impelled. By it, whose nature is eternal knowledge, ego through body, objects and pleasures are known as objects like a pot. By it life, speech and the others move. That inner Self is the primordial person, continuous, undivided, wholly complete, bliss in nature, one, and being itself; in every body it remains as the witness, knowledge alone. The pure Self shines in the heart-cave within this body like unmanifest space, which does not appear outwardly because of its subtlety and pervasiveness; it illumines the world with its radiance as does the sun in the sky. It knows modifications of mind and ego and activities of body, senses and vital forces. Though pervading them like fire in a heated iron mass, it does nothing and undergoes no change. It is not born, does not die, grow, diminish or undergo any other modification. Like pot-space, which does not perish when the pot perishes, its nature is eternal and deathless even when the body dies. Distinct from causal maya and its effects, pure knowledge, illumining being and non-being, without distinctions, witnessing the intellect in waking and the other states, the supreme Self always shines immediately as “I, I.” Know it directly with one-pointed attention: “This I is Brahman.” Recognising your Self in yourself through clarity of understanding, cross the boundless ocean of samsara with its waves of birth and death and remain fulfilled as Brahman alone.