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the interpretation of the most prominent Vedāntin Sankara. Sankara says that it is quite true as Prajäpati said that the true Self has nothing to do with the body. For the body is mortal but the Self is not mortal. The Self dwells in the body and as long as he thinks that the body is I and I am the body, the Self is enthralled by pleasure and pain, it is not perfect, it is not the immortal Self. But as soon as the Self knows that he is independent of the body and becomes free from it, not by death but by knowledge, then he suffers no longer, neither pain nor pleasure can touch him. When he has approached this highest light of knowledge, then there is perfect serenity. He knows himself to be the highest Self and therefore is the highest Self, and though while life lasts, he moves about among the pleasant sights of the world, he does not mind them, they concern his body only, or his bodily Self, his ego, not his absolute Self. He goes a step further and lays down that it is not the individual soul that is the highest Self, the highest Self is not different from Brahma; the interposition of ignorance, nescience or illusion leads the individual Self to believe that he is separate from Brahma; as soon as ignorance is removed, he is Brahma. He does not become Brahma; for really he was nothing less than Brahma. A post in darkness may seem to be a thief to a person but when darkness is removed he realises the fact that it is a post and not a thief. On the disappearance of darkness, the object which was seen does not become a post but the fact is realised that it is and has ever been a post. In the
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