Verse 2.561

Sanskrit text and transliteration:

स्रष्टृप्रवेष्ट्रोश्चैकत्वादभिन्नः स्यात्पराद्बुधः ।
विपश्चिद्व्यतिरेकेण यदीशोऽन्यो न विद्यते ।
ततः स्यादभयप्राप्तिर्द्वितीयाद्वै भयश्रुतेः ॥ ५६१ ॥

sraṣṭṛpraveṣṭroścaikatvādabhinnaḥ syātparādbudhaḥ |
vipaścidvyatirekeṇa yadīśo'nyo na vidyate |
tataḥ syādabhayaprāptirdvitīyādvai bhayaśruteḥ || 561 ||

English translation of verse 2.561:

Since the person who created the universe and the one who entered into it are identical, the wise man is non-different from Brahman. Apart from the wise man, there is no other Lord. Then only the attainment of the state of fearlessness is tenable, for it is known from śruti that fear arises only from a second entity.

Notes:

After refuting the view that the knower of Brahman is different from Brahman, the siddhānta is stated in this verse. The śruti text tatsṛṣṭvā tadevānuprāṃśat stresses that the reality immanent in the created objects is identical with the supreme Brahman. There is also another reason to show that the knower of Brahman is non-different from Brahman. Mokṣa is the state of fearlessness. Śruti says that when the spiritual aspirant does not see anything else, “He gets established in the state of fearlessness” (abhayaṃ pratiṣṭhām vindate). This is appropriate only if it is said that the wise man, i. e., the knower of Brahman, is non-different from Brahman. Śruti does not stop with the statement that the wise man who does not see anything else and who gets established in Brahman attains the state of fearlessness. It also declares that he who makes “the slightest difference in Brahman is struck with fear” (etasminnudaramantaraṃ kurute, atha tasya bhayaṃ bhavati). The same idea is brought out in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka text (I, iv, 2): “Assuredly it is from a second that fear arises.” The idea is that the perception of difference is the cause of fear. And a person who is in the state of fear has not attained mokṣa.