This verse cuts through the seeker’s imagined distance from truth. The state of the Self (ātmanaḥ padam) is neither far away nor contracted by limitation; it is already attained (labdham eva). The Self is nirvikalpa (free from conceptual discrimination), nirāyāsa (effortless), nirvikāra (unchanging), and nirañjana (unstained). In chapter 18 this undermines the very idea of spiritual progress as movement toward a goal. The goal is the already-attained, ever-available ground of awareness.