Chapter-2, Verse 6

Ashtavakra Gita Verse 2.6

यथैवेक्षुरसे क्लृप्ता तेन व्याप्तैव शर्करा। तथा विश्वं मयि क्लृप्तं मया व्याप्तं निरन्तरम्॥६॥

6. Just as sugar made from the sugarcane juice is entirely pervaded by that juice, so the universe, produced in Me, is permeated by Me, both within and without. 

When an example is used as an analogy, Teachers are compelled to draw a picture from the finite world which is familiar to the student but the Infinite can never be fully explained by the finite! Thus, an analogy can help to explain to us only some aspect of Truth; very often the same analogy may give us a false impression of Truth, in some other aspects. In the example of the cloth, no doubt, it is made up of the thread; apart from the thread there is no existence for the cloth. But in a woven cloth there should be microscopic spaces interlacing the woven tirades that form its warp and woof. 

The example given in the above verse, may thus lead the student into a misconception that the Consciousness exists in the things and beings of the universe, with lots of interspaces! This would contradict the all-pervasiveness of the Self. Hence to re-inforce the previous example, the teacher doles out yet another analogy, in this verse, supplementing the understanding derived from the previous. Sugar is made out of the sugarcane juice and the juice pervades every part of the sugar so crystallised. A sugar crystal is homogeneous with the sweetness of the juice. ‘Similarly’ indicates Janaka, ‘I, as the Self, pervade, inside and outside the universe, that has crystallised in Me.’ 

All the above three verses, through different analogies lift the student's understanding to comprehend that the world of plurality is nothing but infinite Consciousness in an apparent state of disturbance. In reality the world is nothing but the Self alone. Then, why this experience of the universe? What makes the world appear? Who creates it? Thus many similar questions are natural in the bosom of a seeker in the early stages of his study. They are answered in the following verse.