Shloka 36
Nondual Vision Beyond Praise and Blame
Dvandva-nivṛtti and Ātma-viveka
एतावानात्मसम्मोहो यद् विकल्पस्तु केवले । आत्मनृते स्वमात्मानमवलम्बो न यस्य हि ॥ ३६ ॥
etāvān ātma-sammoho yad vikalpas tu kevale ātman ṛte svam ātmānam avalambo na yasya hi
အတ္တမန်အတွင်း တွေ့ရသည့် နှစ်မျိုးကွဲသကဲ့သို့သော အမြင်အားလုံးသည် စိတ်၏ မောဟသာ ဖြစ်သည်။ အမှန်တကယ်အားဖြင့် ကိုယ့်အတ္တမန်ကို မလွဲ၍ ထိုကল্পနာနှစ်မျိုးကွဲအတွက် အခြေခံမရှိ။
As explained in verse 33 of this chapter, the eternal self is neither assumed nor lost, since every living entity is an eternal reality. The word vikalpa, or “duality,” here refers to the mistaken idea that the spirit soul is partly composed of matter in the form of the gross body or subtle mind. It is thus that foolish persons consider the material body or mind to be an intrinsic or fundamental component of the self. In fact the living entity is pure spirit, without any tinge of matter. Consequently the false ego, which is generated by the false identification with matter, is a mistaken identity imposed upon the pure spirit soul. The sense of ego, or “I am” — in other words, the sense of one’s individual identity — comes from the spirit soul, because there is no other possible basis for such self-awareness. By studying one’s false sense of ego, one can analytically understand that there is a pure ego, which is expressed by the words ahaṁ brahmāsmi, “I am pure spirit soul.” One can easily understand in a similar way that there is a supreme spirit soul, the Personality of Godhead, who is the omniscient controller of everything. Such understanding in Kṛṣṇa consciousness constitutes perfect knowledge, as described here by the Lord.
FAQs
In 11.28.36, Kṛṣṇa identifies self-delusion as vikalpa—mere conceptual fabrication—implying that illusion is sustained by imagined distinctions rather than by the Self’s reality.
Kṛṣṇa instructs Uddhava on liberation: by recognizing that the Self alone is the true refuge, Uddhava can transcend māyā-born conceptions and remain steady in spiritual realization.
When anxiety or identity-confusion arises, treat it as vikalpa (a constructed story), return to steady spiritual practice (hearing, remembrance, prayer), and anchor the mind in the Self’s dependence on Kṛṣṇa rather than on changing mental narratives.