Verse 57 — Even the Worldly Can Realize This

Even a worldly-minded person of reflection who practices this experience of non-difference (abheda-bhava) shall experience Me — because the world of plurality is indeed a delusion, as proved by the words of the Upanishads and by reasoning. The world is a delusion just like the many moons seen by faulty eyes, or the confusion of directions in a new place. [Verse 57]

This verse concludes the "fruit" section with an encouraging and important message: you do not have to renounce the world to realize the Self.

Renunciation is permitted, not required

Key idea. Choose any lifestyle — householder or renunciate (like Yajnavalkya). Outer withdrawal is permitted, not compulsory. What matters is inner detachment. You can remain fully within society and still practise this.

How? By a shift in relationship:

A gentle image: a lizard on the ceiling imagines "I am holding up the whole ceiling." We similarly imagine we are holding up the people around us. Dropping that illusion — developing a new relationship with the Lord — is what makes someone an inner renunciate, whatever their outer role. Transforming the mind is the toughest task of all.

Why plurality is a "delusion"

The realized person can remain in the world calmly because he "sees the world as false" (jagat mrisha). This does not mean it vanishes — it means he no longer grants it independent substantiality:

flowchart LR
    A[World of names & forms] --> B[Has no substance of its own]
    B --> C[Depends entirely on<br/>consciousness, the one substance]
    C --> D["Seen as 'false' = non-independent,<br/>not 'non-existent'"]

Two lines of proof establish this — the two wings of inquiry:

The everyday belief is exactly backwards: we treat the world as solidly real and consciousness as a vague theory. Scripture and reason together reverse this — Brahman is the only substance; the world is its name-and-form.

Two homely illustrations

• Two moons: faulty eyes (press the eyeball gently) see two moons where there is one. The plurality is in the seeing, not in the moon.
• Confused directions: in a new place, you can feel completely turned around about which way is east — until the sun is located and the confusion instantly clears.

Just as fixing your bearing on the sun dissolves all directional confusion at once, correctly discovering one of the three — jiva, jagat, or Ishvara — as pure consciousness dissolves the confusion about all three. The inner eye is opened by the teacher and the teaching, and the division goes.

With Verse 57, the fruit of knowledge — jivanmukti and videhamukti — has been fully described. Verses 58–62 form the gentle conclusion, addressing those who find non-duality hard to grasp.