We see something because a beautiful scenery, picture or form gives us joy. The Atma Bodha of Sri Adi Sankaracharya describes a sight, of the true self, seeing which, there is nothing else to see. It is seeing the seer of everything that is seen. Once the seer is seen, i.e. known, there is nothing greater in this world that will excite us enough to see.
We strive to become many things—good, rich, famous, prosperous, thin, tall, attractive; but whatever we become, there is always something left to become. The becoming is never complete. However, the one who knows the Self, becomes the Self. Once that individual has become the Self, i.e. realised that he/she is the Self, then there is nothing more to become. The quest for becoming ends.
In front of me is that consciousness. In the lying position parallel to the earth is knowing. Trying to go higher and higher in the atmosphere by stairs, by plane or even by a rocket, there is only knowledge. When I go below the earth, even maybe to its molten core perchance, there is only knowing and its material consciousness. Anywhere around me I go in a circle, spiral or in all directions, layers and circumferences—there is only one thing called consciousness or knowing.
That knowing alone is. Everything else that is, the book, the paper, the cup, the coffee, the biscuit, the cake, the food, the human, the tree, the animal exists, because this consciousness exists. Everything that has existence also has the knowledge of its existence as consciousness. Everything that exists is full of bliss unalloyed. There is no duality in this existence. It is all one homogenous mass of consciousness.
This existence has no end. You can call it infinity, but infinity also exists, so it is only existence. There is no day or time when this existence is not there, so it is eternal. Is there something else to which it can be compared? No, it is nonpareil One. Since there is no second, it cannot be called one either. You cannot even call it a zero, because it IS there. A zero also IS a zero and hence there is existence even in a zero.
Knowing this One, there is nothing else to be known. The itch to know, to find out and experience satisfaction after it is known stops. Our mind creates a fake desire seeking happiness only if something is known. If I know to play the violin, I am happy. I learn to play it and after some years, the violin is in a dead corner of the house and I try hard to give it away as I know to play, but I have another problem now—I don’t have the time or the mind to play. So that desire to know, which I thought would give me joy has created one more reason for sorrow. So, leave all pursuits—meditate on this Brahman, consciousness at all times. In that alone there is peace.