Mandukya Karika, verse 4.92


Text


आदिबुद्धाः प्रकृत्यैव सर्वे धर्माः सुनिश्चिताः ।
यस्यैवं भवति क्षान्तिः सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते ॥ ९२ ॥

ādibuddhāḥ prakṛtyaiva sarve dharmāḥ suniścitāḥ |
yasyaivaṃ bhavati kṣāntiḥ so'mṛtatvāya kalpate || 92 ||

92. All Jīvas are, by their very nature illumined from the very beginning and they are ever immutable in their nature. He who, having known this rests without (sees the needlessness of) seeking further knowledge, is alone capable of realising the Highest Truth.

Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

Even the knowableness attributed to the Jīvas is also due to the illusion of empirical experiences. It cannot be applied from the standpoint of the Supreme Reality. This idea is explained in this text. The Jīvas are illumined, by their very nature, from the very beginning. That is to say, all the Jīvas, like the sun which is of the very nature of eternal light, are ever illumined. No effort need be made to define their nature, as the nature of the Jīva is, from the very beginning, well determined.1 It cannot be subject to any such doubt as, “The Jīva may be like this or like that”. The seeker of liberation who in the manner above described, does not stand in need of anything else to make this knowledge certain to himself or others,—just as the sun, by nature ever illumined, is never in need of any light from itself or others—who thus always rests2 without forming ideas of duality regarding any further knowledge of his own self, becomes capable of realising the Ultimate Reality.