Mandukya Karika, verse 2.30

Text

एतैरेषोऽपृथग्भावैः पृथगेवेति लक्षितः ।
एवं यो वेद तत्त्वेन कल्पयेत्सोऽविशङ्कितः ॥ ३० ॥

etaireṣo'pṛthagbhāvaiḥ pṛthageveti lakṣitaḥ |
evaṃ yo veda tattvena kalpayetso'viśaṅkitaḥ || 30 ||

30. This Ātman, though non-separate from all these, appears, as it were, separate. One who knows this truly imagines (interprets) (the meaning of the Vedas) without hesitation.

Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

Though this Ātman is verily non-separate1 from these, the Prāṇa, etc.,—like the rope from such imaginary ideas as the snake, etc.,—it appears as separate to the ignorant persons. But to the Knower (of truth), the Prāṇa, etc., do not exist apart from Ātman, just as the snake, etc., falsely imagined in the rope, do not exist apart from the rope. For, the Śruti also says, “All that exists is verily Ātman” One who thus knows truly, that is, from Scriptures as well as by reasoning2 that Prāṇa, etc., imagined in Ātman, do not exist separately from Ātman fas in the illustration) of the (illusory) snake and the rope, and further knows that Ātman is ever pure3 and free from all imaginations,—construes,4 without hesitation, the text of the Vedas according to its division.5 That is to say, he knows that the meaning of this passage is this and of that passage is that. None but the Knower of Ātman is able to know truly the (meaning of the) Vedas. “None but the Knower of Ātman is able to derive any benefit from his actions,” says Manu.