all phenomena depend for their seeming existence upon the seeming existence of ourself as ego. Since ego (the subject or knower) and phenomena (the objects or things that are known) both appear and disappear, neither of them is real, but though they appear and disappear simultaneously, phenomena shine or seem to exist only because of ego, as Bhagav

Verse 23: This body is not aware of itself as ‘I’, and ‘I’ does not cease to exist in sleep, but after something called ‘I’ rises, everything rises, so keenly discern where it rises.

we will face many obstacles in the form of our viṣaya-vāsanās (inclinations to seek happiness in objects or phenomena), but we should never give up, because as Bhagavan often said, ‘Nobody has ever succeeded on this path without perseverance’.

The very nature of what exists is awareness.

Bhagavan does not ask us to blindly believe what he teaches us, so he begins his exposition of this philosophy of pure non-duality (advaita) by asking us to critically analyse our own experience of ourself in our three states of waking, dream and sleep, in order to understand why we cannot actually be what we now seem to be.

Verse 11: Knowing anything other than oneself is ignorance, but when one knows the reality of oneself, knowledge and ignorance of everything else will cease.

‘uḷḷadu’ means ‘that which is’ or ‘being’ (either in the sense of ‘existence’ or in the sense of ‘existing’, so ‘that which exists’), or more simply ‘what is’ or ‘what exists’.

Brahman is that which exists in the heart devoid of thought as the pure awareness ‘I am’.

The ego is a form of awareness but awareness mixed up with thoughts or phenomena,