Mandukya Karika, verse 4.77

Text

अनिमित्तस्य चित्तस्य याऽनुत्पत्तिः समाऽद्वया ।
अजातस्यैव सर्वस्य चित्तदृश्यं हि तद्यतः ॥ ७७ ॥

animittasya cittasya yā'nutpattiḥ samā'dvayā |
ajātasyaiva sarvasya cittadṛśyaṃ hi tadyataḥ || 77 ||

77. The non evolution (i.e., the state of knowledge) of the mind, which is unborn and free from causal relation, is absolute and constant. Everything else is also equally unborn. (So what is true of the mind is true of everything else as well.) For, all duality is merely an objectification of the mind.

Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

It has already been stated that in the absence of a cause, the mind is not subject to birth. But what is the nature of that non-evolution of the mind? It is thus replied:—The causes of birth are meritorious actions and their opposite. The state of absolute non-manifestation of the mind,—known as liberation (knowledge) and free from causality1 on account of the realisation of the Supreme—is2 always constant under all conditions and absolute, that is, ever non-dual. Even3 before the attainment of knowledge, the mind always remains nonmanifest and non-dual. Even prior to the realisation of the highest knowledge the idea of duality (i.e., the subject and the object) and the idea of birth are merely an objectification of the mind. Hence the non-evolution of the mind which is always4 free from change or birth is constant and absolute. In other words, it cannot be said that this non-evolution or liberation sometimes exists and sometimes disappears. It is always the same and changeless. It may be contended from the previous Kārikā that liberation depends upon the external factor of time. This contention is-answered in this verse.