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BRAHMANISM
(brahman) am I. It is indivisible, without parts; I am not a combination of the five perishable elements. I am neither body, the senses, nor what is in the body (antar-anga: i.e., the mind). I am not the ego-function; I am not the group of the vital breath-forces; I am not intuitive intelligence (buddhi). Far from wife and son am I, far from land and wealth and other notions of that kind. I am the Witness, the Eternal, the Inner Self, the Blissful One (sivo-'ham: suggesting also, 'I am Śiva').” 234
"Owing to ignorance of the rope the rope appears to be a snake; owing to ignorance of the Self the transient state arises of the individualized, limited, phenomenal aspect of the Self. The rope becomes a rope when the false impression disappears because of the statement of some credible person; because of the statement of my teacher I am not an individual life-monad (jīvo-nāham), I am the Blissful One (Sivo-'ham),25
"I am not born; how can there be either birth or death for me?
"I am not the vital air; how can there be either hunger or thirst for me?
"I am not the mind, the organ of thought and feeling; how can there be either sorrow or delusion for me?
"I am not the doer; how can there be either bondage or release for me?" 236
"Neither hatred and aversion nor passionate clinging have I; neither cupidity nor delusion. I am possessed of neither egotism nor self-infatuation. No claim of the ritualistic code of the duties of life (dharma), no worldly purpose (artha), no desire for any kind of enjoyment (kāma), no freedom attained or released to be sought (mokṣa), pertains to me.287 I am Šiva, whose
234 From the Meditation addressed to Atman.
285 Sankara, Atmapañcaka 2.
286 Ib., conclusion.
287 I.e., "the three ends of secular life (trivarga) mean nothing to me; but the highest goal, release (moksa), which annihilates their meaning, is
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