— Ashtavakra Gita (Chapter 5)

Janak Said:

“Light is my self-nature…
I am not other than that.
When the universe is illuminated,
it is illuminated by my light.
Amazing that through ignorance
the imaginary world appears in me,
just as silver appears in mother of pearl,
a snake in a rope, or a mirage in the rays of the sun…
The universe which has emanated from me
will dissolve into me,
just as a pot dissolves into clay,
a wave into water,
or a bracelet into gold…
Amazing am I, I bow down to myself.
When the whole world shall perish
from Brahma down to the very blade of grass
I shall not perish. I am eternal…
Amazing am I, I bow down to myself.
Although embodied, I am the nondual.
I neither go anywhere nor come from anywhere;
I just exist, I pervade the universe…
Amazing am I, I bow down to myself.
None here is as capable as I,
who have been maintaining this universe
for an eternity without even touching it with the body.
Amazing am I, I bow down to myself.
I have nothing at all,
or I have all that can be encompassed

by speech or thought.”