21. There is only one very clear moon on the full moon night. One should perceive That (the Self) like the moon seeing duality is perversion.
22. It is indeed in this way that intelligence becomes divided and ceases to be all-comprehending. A giver attains to wisdom and is sung with millions of names.
This, etc.-by seeing duality (also, of course, plurality).
Divided-perceiving many objects separated from one another, as in ordinary experience. Intelligence should, if it is not clouded with ignorance, perceive only unity-the whole of Reality-at once.
Such perception, according to Vedanta, is the only true perception of Reality.
Giver-maker of charity.
The second part of this verse, and, as a matter of fact, the whole verse, is a little obscure. Our translation of the second part is literal.
The probable meaning is: When a person gives away all attachment thereby attaining perfect renunciation, being free of all grasping he attains the knowledge of the Self.
The Sanskrit data for the word “giver” also means teacher.
23. Whoever, whether he be ignorant or learned, attains to the full awareness of Truth through the grace of a teacher’s wisdom, becomes detached from the ocean of worldliness.
Ignorant-devoid of scholarship. (learned in the scriptures)
24. He who is free from attachment and hatred, devoted to the good of all beings, fixed in knowledge and steady shall attain to the supreme state.
25. As the space within a pot dissolves in the universal space when the pot is broken, so a yogi, in the absence of the body, dissolves into the supreme Self, which is his true being.
26. It has been said that the destiny of those devoted to action is the same as their thought at the end, but it has not been said that the destiny of those established in yoga is the same as their thought at the end.
End-the dying moment.
The belief in India, clearly expressed in the Bagavad Gita, is that the last thought in the mind of the dying person indicates the nature of his future existence.
This is not true, however, of one who has attained to the knowledge of the Self.
27. One may express the destiny of those devoted to action with the organ of speech, but the destiny of the yogis can never be expressed, because it is transcendental
28. Knowing this, one never says that the yogis have any particular path. For them it is the giving up of all duality, The supreme attainment comes of itself.
Particular, etc.-Departing souls reach their destined worlds following either pitr-yana, the path of the fathers or deva-yana, the path of the gods.
The yogi, after death, does not travel along any path having already attained the Highest, which has nothing to do with any particular place or time, he has no world to reach.
Supreme, etc.-The supreme Truth which the yogi attains after transcending all duality is ever present, eternal, and absolute, so cannot be spoken of in terms of relative existence or relative truth.
When the sense of duality is destroyed, this Truth at once reveals itself, even as the sun is seen shining when clouds disperse.
29. The yogi, having died anywhere, in a holy place or in the house of an untouchable, does not see the mother’s womb again-he is dissolved in the supreme Brahman.
Untouchable-In India because of the cast system, there is a class of people called untouchable because they are considered impure.
Does not, etc.-is not reborn.
30. He who has seen his true Self, which is innate, unborn, and incomprehensible, does not, if anything desired happens to him, become tainted. Being free from taint, he never performs any action. The man of self-restraint or the ascetic, therefore, is never bound.
Desired, etc.-only apparently desired by him who possesses elf-knowledge. When one has attained to the knowledge of the Self one may still continue to live in the body and appear to be actively seeking desired objects.
This, however, is only in semblance.
Being free from the taint of ignorance, which makes the average man seek desirable objects and avoid undesirable ones, he is really inactive.
