The Eye of Knowledge contemplates the One Source as It is in Itself, abounding in Bliss, pervading all things; but the eye of ignorance discovers It not, discerns It not, even as a blind man perceives not the sensible light.
The SELF (the God-within all) being illumined by meditation [when a theoretical and therefore still indirect knowledge makes it appear as if it were receiving the Light from a source other than itself, which is still an illusory distraction], and then burning with the Fire of Knowledge [realizing its essential identity with the Supreme Light], is delivered from all accidents [all contingent modifications], and shines in its own splendor, like gold which is purified in the fire.
When the Sun of spiritual Knowledge rises in the heavens of the Heart [that is at the center of the being], it dispels darkness [of ignorance veiling the single absolute reality], it pervades all and illumines all.
He who has made the pilgrimage of his own SELF (the God-within), a pilgrimage not concerned with situation, place or time [or any particular circumstance or condition], which is everywhere, [and always in the immutability of the ‘eternal present’], in which neither heat nor cold are experienced [no more than any other sense or mental impression], which procures lasting felicity and a final deliverance from all disturbance, all modification. Such a one Knows all things and attains Eternal Bliss.
Shankaracharya, from Rene Guenon: Man & His Becoming according to Vedanta; Sophia Perennis, 1925, 2001.
