Mandukya_Upanishad

where existence becomes identical with knowledge, andknowledge is one with the known. Here the object ofknowledge is the same as knowledge and intuition. Whenthe object stands outside knowledge, it is called perception.This is the difference between intuition and sensorycognition or information. Where the object stands in animmediacy of relation with knowledge, it is intuition. Onecannot say whether it is the object that knows itself or theknowledge that knows itself. The difference between theircharacters vanishes as when two oceans join together. Theknowing subject and the object of its knowledge cometogether in a single coalescence of Being. This is ātmatva -Selfhood.Salila eko drashtā, says Yājnavalkya in theBrihadāranayaka Upanishad. The Ātman is like an oceanicflood without a surface or a limit. The Ātman is the soleSeer, Knower, Beholder, Experiencer, without a counterpartobjective to it. It knows itself, not ‘others’, for the ‘others’are also a part of itself. Hence, knowledge of the Ātman isthe knowledge of the whole of existence. It is notknowledge of this Ātman, that Ātman, this Self, that self,this person, that person. It is the knowledge of The Ātman,which can only be One. The Ātman is single –ekātmapratyayasāram. The One Ātman is called theparamātman as distinguished from the multitudinousnessof the so-called ātmans, called jīvātmans. It is paramātman,because it is the Supreme Self. Brahmeti paramātmetibhagavāniti śabdyat, says the Śrimad-Bhāgavata. From theabsolute, universal and personal standpoints, it is calledBrahman, paramātman and bhagavān. In itself it is103