Continued from Verse Thirty-Two
33. It is ridiculous to say either 'I have not realized the Self' or 'I have realized the Self'; are there two selves, for one to be the object of the other's realization? It is a truth within the experience of everyone that there is only one Self.
Commentary: Realization is an event and thus a concept. Events and concepts happen in the land of things, that is, the land of the mind or the ego. This ego, this foundational feeling that “I am,” creates the sense of separation that is the identification with the mind and the body. This is called the veil of ignorance.
It is the purpose of self-inquiry to pierce that veil. But in piercing that veil, it is found that you are not the ego, are not the mind — and never were. Therefore the idea of realization is also inapplicable — and always was. Who identified with the mind and the body? Who was ignorant of their true nature? There was no such entity — that, seemingly paradoxically, is realization.
The “I” that could realize anything is the separate I — precisely the I that is seen to be not what it thought itself to be. It cannot be that I that realizes anything, because realization is seeing how that I is an object. That I cannot realize or not realize anything, any more than a stone can.
And yet the infinite, inexpressible Self which we actually are also cannot realize anything, since it cannot be ignorant in the first place. Pure light cannot admit darkness. The Self does not cognize objects. The Self does not do anything. All doing and all things are only in the egoic perspective.
Realization is the leaving behind of the notion that ”I” am an entity that could realize anything. And yet, despite all that, the seeker must reach for this realization as if they could realize it. The impossibility of realization, the eternality of realization, is itself the realization that will then be clear.
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