Verse 2.104

Sanskrit text and transliteration:

एवं ज्ञातं विजानाति विमुक्तश्च विमुच्यते ।
निवर्तते निवृत्तं च त्रिर्वः शपथयाम्यहम् ॥ १०४ ॥

evaṃ jñātaṃ vijānāti vimuktaśca vimucyate |
nivartate nivṛttaṃ ca trirvaḥ śapathayāmyaham || 104 ||

English translation of verse 2.104:

Thus, one knows what is already known; and “being already free, one is liberated;” and also what is already removed is removed. I promise you thrice.

Notes:

Though the jīva in its essential nature is Brahman itself, it does not know itself to be so only due to ignorance. As in the case of attaining what is already attained, to know Brahman is to know what is already known. Since Brahman is ever-free and since it is non-different from the inward Self of the individual, the bondage of the

jīva which is to be removed is like removing the serpent in the rope. The serpent is not in the rope; it is only imagined to be there. Likewise. the condition of bondage can never be a characteristic of the ever-free Self; but it is imagined to be so, the real nature of the Self being concealed by avidyā. So what is ever-free gets liberated; and bondage which is not really there gets removed. That is why Śaṅkara says in the course of his commentary on the Bṛhadāraṇyaka text, IV, iv, 5: “Really there is no such distinction as liberation and bondage in the Self, for it is eternally the same; but the ignorance regarding it is removed by the knowledge arising from the teachings of Scripture.”

The idea of the attainment of the attained finds support in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka text (IV, iv, 6) which says: “Being Brahman, he goes to Brahman” (Brahmaiva san brahmāpyeti). The Aitareya text (III, i.3), “Consciousness is Brahman” (prajñānam brahma) conveys the idea that Brahman which is of the nature of consciousness is already known. Brahman-consciousness is the basis of every act of cognition. What is presupposed in every act of cognition is already known. The Kaṭha Upaniṣad (II, ii, 1) speaks of the liberation of what is already liberated (vimuktaśca vimucyate). The idea of removing what is already removed is supported by the Chāndogya text (VI, ii, 1) which says that Brahman, the ultimate reality, is “one only, without a second” (ekameva advitīyam). Only if there is a second to Brahman, the question of removing what is other than Brahman will arise. But Brahman is free from difference of every kind—sajātīya, vijātīya and svagata-bheda. There is nothing like Brahman; there is nothing unlike it; and also Brahman is free from internal differentiation. So the jīva which in its essential nature is no other than Brahman is not really subject to bondage. What is really free from bondage appears to be bound due to avidyā. And so removing bondage is a case of removing what is already removed.