Mandukya Karika, verse 4.98

Text

अलब्धावरणाः सर्वे धर्माः प्रकृतिनिर्मलाः ।
आदौ बुद्धास्तथा मुक्ता बुध्यन्त इति नायकाः ॥ ९८ ॥

alabdhāvaraṇāḥ sarve dharmāḥ prakṛtinirmalāḥ |
ādau buddhāstathā muktā budhyanta iti nāyakāḥ || 98 ||

98. All Dharmas (i.e., Jīvas) are ever free from bondage and pure by nature. They are ever illumined and liberated from the very beginning. Still the wise speak of the Jīvas as capable of knowing (‘the Ultimate Truth’).

Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

(Objection)—It has been stated in the previous Kārikā that (according to the view of the ignorant) the destruction of the veil covering the real nature of Ātman is not possible. This is a (tacit) admission by the Vedāntist that the (real) nature of the Jīvas is covered by a veil. (Reply)—It1 is not so. The Jīvas 2 are never subject to any veil or bondage imposed by ignorance. That is to say, they are ever free from any bondage (which does not at all exist). They are pure by nature; illumined and free from the very beginning as it is said that they are of the nature of eternal purity, knowledge and freedom. If so, why are Jīvas described as capable of knowing (the Ultimate Reality) by teachers who are competent to know the Truth, i.e., those who are endowed with the power of discrimination? The reply is that it3 is like speaking about the sun as shining though the very nature of the sun is all-light, or speaking about the hill, which is ever free from any motion, as always standing.