He who remains established in Brahman, seeing the universe as the Self through the Self, though he sees, he does not see; for him saṃsāra does not exist.

The recursive structure “viśvam ātmānam ātmanā” —seeing the universe as the Self by means of the Self— is a direct echo of the classic formula from the Kaṭha Upaniṣad: “ātmānam ātmany ātmānam paśyati” —the Self sees itself in the Self by the Self. The triple repetition of ātman removes all mediation. There is no instrument, no object, no process; only the seeing that is its own act of seeing.

“Paśyann api na paśyāti” —though he sees, he does not see— is the formula of non-dual vision. It is not that the jīvanmukta is blind to the world; rather, his vision of the world is no longer a vision of something, but knowledge as something. Just as the eye that sees light does not see “something” but is simply illuminated, so the brahmavid sees the universe as objectless self-luminosity.

The concept of saṃsāra is here defined with precision: it is not the world as such, but the world seen as separate from the Self. “Saṃsāro ‘sya na vidyate” —for him, saṃsāra does not exist— does not mean the world disappears, but that its character as saṃsāra disappears —as transmigration, as perpetual becoming, as dissatisfaction. The world remains; what ceases is its appearance as a prison. As the Aṣṭāvakra Gītā says (II.24): “Where there is ‘I,’ there is bondage; where there is no ‘I,’ there is no bondage. It is that simple.”