Verse 3.88

Sanskrit text and transliteration:

सत्यज्ञानादिरूपोऽहमविद्योत्थमशेषतः ।
अहं ह्यभिभवाम्येको दिनकृच्छार्वरं यथा ॥ ८८ ॥

satyajñānādirūpo'hamavidyotthamaśeṣataḥ |
ahaṃ hyabhibhavāmyeko dinakṛcchārvaraṃ yathā || 88 ||

English translation of verse 3.88:

“I am (the inward Self identical with Brahman) which is real, knowledge, etc. I myself remove, without remainder, everything caused by avidyā in the same way as the sun removes the darkness (of the night).”

Notes:

Since the śruti texts yo mā dadāti, etc., speak of Brahman in the form of food, it may be thought that Brahman is saviśeṣa and sapra-

pañca. The subsequent śruti text ahaṃ viśvam bhuvanamabhyabhavām, which is now taken up for explanation, is intended to show that Brahman is free from attribute (nirviśeṣa) and is transphenomenal (niṣprapañca). The knower of Brahman remains as Brahman by transcending, through knowledge, the things of the world which are related.as food and the eater of food. The phenomenal world, in which alone the relation of the enjoyer and the enjoyed holds good, is not real. The Upaniṣad speaks of the relation of food and the eater of food with a view to teach that the phenomenal world involving such a relation is supported by, and has no being of its own apart from, Brahman, the non-dual reality. When the knower of Brahman realizes, through the saving knowledge obtained from the Upanishadic texts, that his inward Self is no other than Brahman, avidyā along with its effects disappears in the same way ar. darkness of the night disappears at sun rise. The knowledge imparted by the Upanisadic texts is competent by itself to remove ignorance and its effects without requiring assistance from any other source.