The “I” That is Seeking Liberation is Unreal: “All Are Appearances in and of Awareness” — Advaita, Gaudapada & the Seeker Who Never Was
A friend messaged “All are appearances in and of awareness” in reply to my poem “Big B” – https://selfrealization.blog/2026/04/13/big-b/.
I responded back as follows:
With such perfect understanding already in place, are you sure I might have anything else to add to that. Really, what you wrote just now is all the knowledge one needs to undertake and finish the spiritual journey with no need for any other prop. The very looking for other props is itself the obstacle to the full manifestation of the understanding that is already there…shit, one knows one has to just “keep quiet” and everything will be accomplished and yet why are we all restless?
“Sitting quietly, doing nothing;
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.”
~ Matsuo Basho
This (“All are appearances in and of awareness”) is all that the name-and-form analogy of the clay and pot conveys albeit in different words.
The only problem then for you and I might be that we are failing to grasp that the I that is seeking to understand and attain self-realization is itself an “appearance in and of awareness”.
Which is why Ashtavakra Gita and Gaudapada’s Verse 32 in Chapter 2 of Mandukya Karika (see below) and Sankaracharya’s Nirvana Shatakam say what they say.
Mandukya Karika 2.32 (Vaitathya Prakarana) asserts that from the standpoint of Absolute Truth (Paramartha), there is no creation, destruction, bondage, liberation, or seeker. This famous verse highlights that all dualistic experiences are illusions, and the ultimate reality is non-dual (Advaita), often interpreted as the unborn, unchanging Self. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Sanskrit Verse (2.32):
न निरोधो न चोत्पत्तिर्न बद्धो न च साधकः ।न मुमुक्षुर्न वै मुक्त इत्येषा परमार्थता ॥ ३२ ॥
na nirodho na cotpattirna baddho na ca sādhakaḥ |na mumukṣurna vai mukta ityeṣā paramārthatā || 32 ||
Translation & Key Meanings:
- na nirodho: There is no destruction.
- na ca utpattiḥ: There is no creation or origin.
- na baddhaḥ: There is no one in bondage.
- na ca sādhakaḥ: There is no one practicing spiritual disciplines.
- na mumukṣuḥ: There is no seeker after liberation.
- na vai muktaḥ: There is no one liberated.
- iti eṣā paramārthatā: This is the Absolute Truth. [1, 2]
Significance:
- Non-Dual Reality: This verse by Gaudapada clarifies that the ultimate reality is entirely free from all dualistic concepts, including the processes of spiritual seeking or the state of liberation itself.
- Context: It comes within the context of analyzing the “unreality” (Vaitathya) of the world and the mind, noting that when knowledge of the Self is attained, all mental projections disappear.
- Absolute vs. Relative: While relative existence appears as a world of change, from the ultimate standpoint, no change ever occurred, as explained on VivekaVani and Tom Das. [1, 2, 6]
[1] https://vivekavani.com/m2v32/
[2] https://tomdas.com/2018/02/22/advaita-vedanta-gaudapadas-method-mandukya-upanishad-karika/
[3] https://swamij.com/upanishad-mandukya-karika.htm
[4] https://vedantastudents.com/mandukya-upanishad-with-shankara-bashyam-volume-17/
[5] https://vedantastudents.com/mandukya-upanishad-with-shankara-bashyam-volume-20/
[6] https://vivekavani.com/m3v32/
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