' Consciousness Manifesting '...

"Since Consciousness is one by nature, no distinction is admissible under any circumstances.

Even the condition of the individual soul must be understood to be unreal,

like the apprehension of a serpent in a rope.

As the rope, in consequence of one's ignorance of it,

appears in an instant as a serpent, so does consciousness,

which is ever pure, manifest itself as the universe."



-Sri Shankaracharya
"Direct Realization"
Select Works Of Sri Sankaracharya
Translated By S. Venkataramanan
Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1921, p. 52-53