Special Edition: By Shri Praveen Bhat, a Sadhaka in Advaita Vedanta. Currently living in Bombay.

Advaita Ratna Rasāyana

The Chemistry of Self-realization as explained in Sankarācārya’s Eka-sloki.
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kiM jyotistavabhAnumAnahani me ratrau pradIpaAdikaM
syAdevaM ravidIpadarshana vidhau kiM jyotirAkhyAhi me
chakshustasya nimIlanAdisamaye kiM dhIrdhiyo darshane
kiM tatrAhamato bhavanparamakaM jyotistadasmI prabho

Is it your light that shines in the day as the sun and as the bright lamp in the night? Let it be. Which light shines when I close my eyes? (in mental vision) Which light illumines in my mental perception? You are that supreme light that illumines the awareness of 'aham' and I am that light 1

The entire *light* of Upanishads is put there beautifully in that one shloka in such a simple manner. I bow down to that Guru Shankara who is the ever guiding light.

gukAraschAndhakArAhi rukArastejochyate
ajnAnagrAsakaM brahma gurureva na saMshayaH

When there is darkness at night, one can't see anything around, he has to light a lamp to illumine those things. But when the sun rises, the same dark world is now visible owing to sun rays. The commonness in both the sun rays and the lamp's fire is the light by which the objects are illumined. The objects thus illumined are seen by the eye. The same eyes, when closed, still make the objects visible in the antahkaraNa, in our imagination and dreams! Where is the sun then? Where is the lamp then? Where is the world and its objects then? How are those same objects visible with the eyes closed? So the objects are neither seen by the eye nor illumined by the sun/ lamp. That light which illumines is within.While the mind fades away into deep sleep, what is seen? I see darkness. When the sun sets, the objects are darkened, but still darkness is visible. That darkness, even, is illumined by the inner light. For me to know that I slept blissfully, or to know nothing during deep sleep, I need to exist. That avashtAtrayAtita Self is the one that illumines the darkness of sleep, the waking and dream worlds; the Self illumines the intellect, antahkaraNa, the eyes (senses), the sun and the lamp and thus the objects are perceived! In other words, if the sun illumined the world, how would I see the world when the sun sets? By the lamp's light? If so, how would I see the darkness without the lamp and the sun? How would I see the world in my dreams without the sun and the lamp to light them? How would I know of deep sleep, or not know it, or see darkness without the sun and the lamp? And to close the loop, how would I see even the sun during the day and lamp during the night if I didn't exist? So I exists as the guiding light. That I, the Self, is the brahmaN that the shrutI declares as the substratum of everything, that illumines all that is sentient and insentient.

Chandogya 3.13.7 says: There is a light that shines beyond all things on Earth, beyond us all, beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is the light that shines in our heart.Katha 5.15 says:There the sun shines not, nor moon nor stars;These lightnings shine not, let alone this fire.All things shine with the shining of this light,This whole world reflects its radiance.Kena 1.2 also declares the Self It is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of speech, the breath of breath, and the eye of the eye...The world here, the world of the dreams, those heavenly abodes that the karma khanDa rituals provide for... beyond all those exists a light that illumines all those. That very light is the one in our heart. How else can they be illumined without the existence of I? Who will witness it, who will provide for jIva to be bound to those worlds without being illumined by I? What will the jIva erroneously enjoy or suffer if not illumined by I? How will the jIva even exist without That I? All the worlds that the jIva binds to, gives reality to, thinks of, assumes, errs, enjoys and suffers, including its suns, lamps, and the objects, is but the reflection of the ever-free, ever-shining I, the very Self, the brahmaN of the shrutI.

gurorarpaNamastu
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1.Translation by Dr.Saroja Ramanujam