yasminsarvāṇi bhūtānyātmaivābhūdvijānatḥ | tatra ko mohḥ kḥ śoka ekatvamanupaśyatḥ ||
“When, for the knower, all beings have become the Self itself, what delusion or sorrow can there be for one who sees oneness?”
Scholarly Commentary
From the perspective of absolute non-duality, this verse articulates the final realization of identity between the individual soul and Brahman. The phrase 'all beings have become the Self' does not imply a temporal change or a new state, but rather the removal of the ignorance (avidya) that previously veiled this ever-present truth. The 'knower' (vijnan) refers to one who has realized that the substratum of all existence is singular. When this oneness is directly perceived, the duality of subject and object dissolves. Consequently, the questions of 'who' experiences delusion or sorrow become moot, as there is no separate 'other' from whom to suffer. Moha (delusion) arises from the misperception of multiple distinct entities, while shoka (grief) stems from attachment to separate forms. By seeing only undifferentiated consciousness (Ekatsva), the root causes of suffering are uprooted. This is not a philosophical argument but a declarative statement of experience: in the ocean of pure being, there are no waves to rise and fall. The verse serves as an invitation to investigate the nature of the witness, revealing that the apparent multiplicity of the world is superimposed upon the non-dual Self, much like a rope is mistaken for a snake. When the illusion breaks, only the rope—and here, the infinite Self—remains.