He who remains established in Brahman, seeing the Self in all circumstances, is liberated from saṃsāra; though he sees, he does not see.

The verse presents an apparent paradox that is, in fact, an accurate description: “seeing the Self in all circumstances” (sarvathāpy ātmadarśanam kurvan) and “though seeing, does not see” (paśyann api na paśyati). There is no contradiction: to see the Self in all things is not to see “things”; it is to see that all things are the Self. The verb is the same, but the grammatical structure has changed—from transitive to intransitive, from object-oriented to non-object-oriented.

“Sarvathā”—in all circumstances—eliminates the distinction between meditative states and ordinary states. Ātmadarśana is not something one “practices” in an āśram and “suspends” in the marketplace. It is the vision that persists through all changes of state because it does not depend on any particular state. Just as space does not change when objects enter and leave, so the ātman does not change when states appear and disappear.

The Yoga Sūtra (III.55) states: “sattva-puruṣānyatā-khyāti-mātrasya sarva-bhāva-adhiṣṭhātṛtvaṃ sarva-jñātṛtvaṃ ca”—when there is only discrimination of the difference between sattva and puruṣa, there is mastery over all states and omniscience. This is not a superpower but super-vision: seeing that every state is a projection of puruṣa, that all knowledge is self-knowledge. The “omniscient one” is not someone who knows more things; it is someone for whom the distinction between “more” and “less” has lost its meaning.

The verse presents an apparent paradox that is, in fact, an accurate description: “seeing the Self in all circumstances” (sarvathāpy ātmadarśanam kurvan) and “though seeing, does not see” (paśyann api na paśyati). There is no contradiction: to see the Self in all things is not to see “things”; it is to see that all things are the Self. The verb is the same, but the grammatical structure has changed—from transitive to intransitive, from objective to non-objective.

“Sarvathā”—in all circumstances—eliminates the distinction between meditative states and ordinary states. Ātmadarśana is not something one “practices” in an āśram and “suspends” in the marketplace. It is the vision that persists through all changes of state because it does not depend on any particular state. Just as space does not change when objects enter and exit, so the ātman does not change when states appear and disappear.

The Yoga Sūtra (III.55) states: “sattva-puruṣānyatā-khyāti-mātrasya sarva-bhāva-adhiṣṭhātṛtvaṃ sarva-jñātṛtvaṃ ca”—when there is only discrimination of the difference between sattva and puruṣa, there is mastery over all states and omniscience. This is not superpower but super-vision: seeing that every state is a projection of puruṣa, that all knowledge is self-knowledge. The “omniscient” one is not someone who knows more things; it is someone for whom the distinction between “more” and “less” has lost its meaning.