Mandukya Karika, verse 2.12

Text

कल्पयत्यात्मनाऽऽत्मानमात्मा देवः स्वमायया |
स एव बुध्यते भेदानिति वेदान्तनिश्चयः ॥ १२ ॥

kalpayatyātmanā''tmānamātmā devaḥ svamāyayā |
sa eva budhyate bhedāniti vedāntaniścayaḥ || 12 ||

12. Ātman, the self-luminous, through the power of his own Māyā, imagines in himself by himself (all the objects that the subject experiences within or without). He alone is the cognizer of the objects (so created). This is the decision of the Vedānta.

Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

The self-luminous1 Ātman himself,2 by3 his own Māyā, imagines4 in 5himself the different6 objects, to be described hereafter. It is like the imagining of the snake, etc., in the rope, etc. He7 himself cognizes them, as8 he has imagined them. There9 is no other substratum of knowledge and memory. The aim of Vedānta is to declare that knowledge and memory are not without, support as the Buddhistic nihilists maintain.