About this stotra
Composed by Shri Adi Shankaracharya. He has successfully encapsulated the essence of Vedantic philosophy in this single (eka) Sloka, one Verse. Hence the name ekasloki. It is presented as a dialogue between a teacher (Guru) and student (Sishya), in response to a question by the student on realization of self. In short `that thou art' or `ahambrahmasmi.'
Detailed explanation - Excerpt from the book "The Light of Wisdom" by By Ramana Maharshi, Nome
"What provides you with light?" "By day, the sun, by night, a lamp." "What is the light that sees these lights?" "The eye." "What is the light that illumines the eye?" "The intellect." "What is it that knows the intellect?" "It is the 'I.'" "Therefore, you are the light of lights." When the teacher said this, [the disciple said,] "Truly, I am That." If you trace the knowing inward, you arrive at the conclusive realization of yourself being pure Consciousness. What knows the world? What provides you with light? By day the sun, by night a lamp; what is this light that sees these lights? The eye. The experience of the universe is contained entirely within the sensations of it. The world, or universe, does not know itself. Something illumines it, knows it, through the senses. Apart from those sensations, the objective portion has no existence whatsoever and is certainly not self-known.
Asked, "What is the light that illumines the eye?" the eye and other senses, the answer is, "the intellect." Something shines in and through the mind and knows all the sensations, which in turn compose the entire sphere of objective experience. Apart from the mind, there is no experience and knowledge of the senses and the world. The senses do not know themselves. Something else knows them. It appears as the mind. What knows the mind? By what light is the mind seen? That alone can be "I," for the mind contains all that is objective. That which knows the mind, by whose light the mind is seen, must necessarily be nonobjective. The mind does not know itself. The "I" knows it. Here, the inquiry reaches its conclusion, for the "I" is self-known. The things, the senses, and the mind are not self-known. They depend on another to illuminate them. The "I," that which knows even the mind, is self-known and does not depend on anything else in order to be known. It does not depend on another source of illumination. The "I" is only one. There are not two "I"s in you. There is just one "I," self-existent and self-known. It is the light of the world that is beyond the world, the light of the senses un-grasped by the senses, and the light of the mind not conceived by the mind. It is Brahman, which no sense and no thought can grasp. This is your real place. This is your true identity. You are, therefore, the light of all lights, the single light that alone shines through all that it transcends.
That which is truly "I," your identity, your existence, lies quite beyond the domain of words and thoughts. What is it that lies beyond words and thoughts? By whose light are the thoughts, the words, and all else known? The answer to the question is found not by guesswork or forming an idea but by complete absorption of your sense of identity in the light of Consciousness. The answer is of the nature of direct experience. The answer is of the nature of your very Being. Your abidance as That, the full absorption of your identity in That, is the nature of the answer to the inquiry. Consciousness is not an attribute, just as Existence is not an attribute. An attribute is a quality that belongs to something else or a power or an ability that belongs to something else. Consciousness does not belong to anything else. At no time does Consciousness cease, just as at no time does Existence cease to exist. Consciousness neither does anything nor does anything do something to it.
Observe how the entire experience of the world is illumined by, or known by, your senses. Without the sensations, there would be no experience of a world. The light of the world, inclusive of all that are bright, like the sun and the moon, is the senses. What illumines, or knows, your senses? Your mind knows the senses. If it were not for the mind's knowledge, or illumination, there would be no experience of sensations. Trace the knowing further inward. What illumines the intellect? What is the light for your mind? The mind consists of innumerable thoughts of various permutations arranged in various modes and states. What illumines them? The mind does not know itself. What knows it? If it were not for this shining knowledge, there would be no experience of a mind.
Trace the knowing further inward. Beyond the mind, distinctions cease. You are left with your own Being. Your own Being is the all-illuminating Consciousness. What illumines Consciousness? Nothing else does. Nothing else knows it. It knows itself, by itself. It is not an object of perception or conception, but it is the light for all percepts and all concepts always. To know yourself to be that light is true Knowledge. Be free of mistaking yourself to be some illumined object. You are the illumination. If you misidentify as an object, from the mind to the forms of the world, the darkness of ignorance appears. If you know yourself to be the light of all lights, there is not a trace of darkness.
Distinguish what is objective and what is the Light. Though referred to as "light," it is not something to be seen with the eyes or visualized by the mind. By "light" is meant pure Knowledge; not percepts and concepts, but Knowledge. The guru instructs in the manner of inquiry, what provides you with light, causing the Consciousness to become awake to itself and free from the darkness of delusion. It is the sadguru who informs the disciple, in the deepest possible way, that the disciple is truly the Light of lights. He reveals one's very identity, one's very Existence, the nature of Consciousness. By inquiring accordingly, following the instruction precisely, the state of "I-am-That," identity with Brahman, is realized. It is a unique recognition, in that it is not constituted of ideas. It is not like recalling something from memory, though it is recalling something you always knew. It is the revelation of the Ever-revealed.
By "light" is indicated knowing. What is it that truly knows? In relation to the objects, the senses seem to be the knower, but the senses themselves are the objects for the mind, for which the mind seems to be the knower. Who knows the mind? It is the "I." What then, is the nature of "I"? What is the source of all knowing within you? That which is the source is self-luminous, self-knowing, and does not depend on any other instrument or source in order to know. You cannot be the known; you can be only the knower. All of the known is contained in the knowing and all of the knowing in the knower. To define the knower in terms of the forms of the known is a mistake. To realize the knower as the knower alone is the revelation of pure Consciousness. Your identity truly is only pure Consciousness, referred to as "the knower" in relation to all that is known. Just by itself, it transcends all definition.
In the discovery of Consciousness in meditation, what is the nature of the discoverer? The discrimination is not between two objective things, but rather the discernment of that which is nonobjective. The result is that Being is itself the Knowledge. The Knowledge, which can never be extinguished, which is its own source, and which is infinite and eternal, is here referred to as light. Self-inquiry is non-conceptual, nonobjective Knowledge. It is not an activity; it is not a doing. Activities, of whatever kind, can yield only transient results. True Knowledge is of an eternal nature. Liberation is of an eternal nature. So, it is emphasized that action does not lead to Liberation. Self-Knowledge alone is Liberation. The complete dis-identification from all that is objective and the utter dissolution of an identity as an individual being are the inquiry and the Knowledge.
What is the nature of that which is aware of the object? What is the knower without an object to know? The assumption of the objective, as something existing, occurs to whom? One Consciousness is all-illuminating. It is the light in all knowledge of whatever kind. When you think that you know something, you are actually knowing only the Self as that thing. The nature of the knowing is only the Self, also, and so it is for the knower, as well. One Self, in illusion, appears as three, the knower, the knowing, and the known. Upon inquiry into the knower, the individuality, being unreal, vanishes and, along with it, the objectifying outlook that supposes, "I know an object," or, "I have known objects in the past," etc. What has actually occurred? Just the Existence the Self, which is the self-luminous Consciousness, is.
What is the light for you? What is the knower? Is your mind a knower? Someone knows the mind. The mind cannot be the knower. Beyond the mind, within you, what is there? Beyond the mind, there are no objects. Beyond the mind, there are not two. There is no multiplicity beyond the mind. Therefore, the verse concludes not with, "There is the light," but, "I am That." One's own Being is the Knowledge.
Direct experience, not ideas, is desirable. We see objects; by what light do we see objects? Of course, there is physical light, but what is spoken of as light in the spiritual sense is knowledge. By your senses, you perceive all phenomena. So much so is this the case that we can say sensations compose the phenomena, and, apart from them, you have never experienced an object. The objects, therefore, are only sensations. The senses appear to know the objects; the objects do not know the senses. The senses do not know themselves. They are not self-effulgent. Something else knows them. Your mind knows your senses. So, the entire world is in the senses, and the entirety of the sensations is in your mind.
Your mind knows the senses and their objects; the senses and their objects do not know your mind. The mind is not self-effulgent either; something else knows the mind. Beyond the mind, there is no name and form. Beyond the mind is only pure Consciousness, and that is your identity. You are not of the world, the body, the senses, or the mind. That which ought to be known as "I" is only this self-luminous Consciousness, the Light of lights. When the disciple truly understands the Reality, as taught by the guru, he realizes, and what he realizes is summed up in the phrase, "Truly, I am That." So, if we speak of Self-Realization as a state, it is a state of identity.
With all of the thinking that has ever been performed, you have not thought of your Self. You may have thought the word "Self," but you have not thought of your Self. If spiritual thought does not touch you, how much less does worldly thought touch you? There is One who understands you, and that One is God. Seek inwardly for the Light of all lights. You are not the mind; your nature is pure Consciousness. If you seek the Light of lights within yourself, it will turn out that there is not a thing to be called "the mind."
How do you see the world? By what light? If you see it by your senses, by what do you know the senses? You know the senses by your mind. Indeed, the senses are nothing more than a faculty within the mind itself. There is nothing external. What sees the mind?
The scriptures speak about the mind only to rid the aspirant of the false belief in it. The scriptures speak of objects, but do not do so with the intention of reinforcing the dualistic concept that objects exist. Rather, they speak of such only in the course of revealing the absolute Existence, which is God or Brahman. Likewise is it in the case of the mind, senses, the jiva, etc. Multiplicity is only possible with the senses and the mind. If the Light of which they speak is sense-transcendent and mind-transcendent, it can be only One. Since it is self-knowing, self-luminous, pure Knowledge, therefore the disciple said, "Truly, I am That." If there is anything, all of it is entirely within That. If there is not anything, That alone is. If you are That, you are the motionless. The Existence is only One.
