Knowledge eventually ends in all that is musical. It almost bursts into a song. So does the Guru sing in Sri Adi Sankaracharya’s Vivekachoodamani.
The Self is eternal. It is present everywhere and hence no place is inaccessible to it. It is the most subtle object that can ever be experienced. It is within and without.
There is nothing else in it except itself. It is nothing other than the Self that is I. Knowing this clearly, the real form of one’s own self, the human, is freed from all agitations of the mind, results of all sinful thoughts and actions, and from all death.
The one who knows the Self is free of sorrow. He experiences that he is one mass of bliss. He himself is not afraid at any point of time and of any one that he meets. The Guru certainly proclaims that there is no other path to be released from the bondage of existence for the seeker of freedom, other than knowing his own true self.
The cause for being released from the identification with existence is nothing other than knowing one’s true identity as the Brahman.
The wise man comes to experience this bliss that transcends all duality by this knowledge alone. Having become the very nature of Brahman by simply knowing the identity, the wise person never gets into the whirl of transmigration between living and dying.
So the most important task is to know this oneness clearly between what you call you and the supreme reality—Brahman—and that it is not different from your own self.
It is all right to say that my nature is that of the Brahman. The Acharya now explains that term Brahman from the Upanishads. It is Satyam—reality.
It is Jnanam—knowledge. It is Anantam —endless or seamless. It is Vishuddham—extremely pure. It is Param—supreme. It is Swatah Siddham—it reveals itself by itself. No light needs to be shined on it. This Brahman or I is the one essence which is eternal bliss that is not different from one’s own self.
So what can it do? It is always victorious. Owing to the absence of any object other than the Self, it is existence and the supreme expression that is non-dual.
There is not even a little bit anywhere in the world that is other than the Brahman for the person in that state of mind who has very clearly understood and realised that essence.