Four essential attributes of Ātman are declared: it is of the nature of knowledge (jñānamaya), eternal (nitya), all-pervading (vibhu), and the singular Self of all (akhilātmaka). Given this nature, Aṣṭāvakra asks, what action (karma) could possibly bind or liberate it? The question exposes a category error: bondage and liberation apply to the body-mind complex, not to Ātman. This is one of the text’s most explicit statements of the vivarta theory of Advaita — the world and its suffering are an appearance (vivarta) superimposed on the changeless Self, not a real transformation.