Chapter-2, Verse 8

Ashtavakra  Gita Verse 2.8

प्रकाशो मे निजं रूपं नातिरिक्तोऽस्म्यहं ततः। यदा प्रकाशते विश्वं तदाऽहंभास एव हि॥८॥

8. Light is my very nature; I am nothing other than that Light. When the universe manifests, indeed, it is I alone who shine. 

The life, as Consciousness, brings to our awareness all our experiences – physical, mental and intellectual. In this sense of the term, the Upaniṣads very often indicate the Self as 'Light' (caitanya). Genesis 1:3-25 NLT. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. It is often taken by the student too literally and in their overzealous enthusiasm they start imagining in their meditation that they had seen the Truth as a dazzling ‘mass of light’. Hindu Teachers, while teaching us the Upaniṣads, take special pains to remind us that the term ‘Light’ as used here is not ‘light’ as we experience in the world outside. What we experience can only be an ‘object’ not the ‘Subject’. Śrī Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had once defined the Reality as ‘Light without its properties’. In Vedānta, the Self is considered as ‘Light’ because of its essential expression, in all living beings, as Consciousness.

When the ego is ended, the seeker rediscovers himself to be the light of Consciousness that illuminates both the subject and its world of objects, the experiencing ego and the entire field of its experiences. Janaka from his own inward experience of this transcendental Self identifies himself with the infinite Consciousness and declares, ‘Light is my very nature; I am nothing other than that Light.’ 

This ‘Light’-nature is inexpressible for the human intellect and when this Consciousness is viewed through our disturbing equipments of the body, mind and intellect, it is visualised as the world of objects, emotions and thoughts. In a cinema theatre, inside the machine room, is the white arc light which is spread on the entire area of the screen, facing the audience. But when the film passes in front of the arc light within the machine room, the audience observes the world of names and forms and their movements, revealing the theme of the story. In the same way, the Consciousness within is viewing the Consciousness which is the substratum of the whole universe, through our equipments and, therefore, the world picture is perceived. 

In short, the universe is nothing but a projection of the effulgent Self. We are irresistibly reminded of a similar assertion in the Bhagavad-Gītā and Upaniṣads insisting that all that exists, shines and rejoices are all variegated expressions of the One, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss, Saccidānanda-Reality. The awareness of the universe is itself a play of the Awareness.