यद्भासा भास्यतेऽर्कादि भास्यैर्यत्तु न भास्यते ।
येन सर्वमिदं भाति तद्ब्रह्मेत्यवधारयेत् ॥६०॥
yadbhaasaa bhaasyaterkaadi bhaasyairyattu na bhaasyate l
yena sarvamidam bhaati tadbrahmetyavadhaarayet ll60ll
That, by the light of which, the luminous orbs like the Sun and the Moon are illuminated, but which is not illumined by their light, realize that to be Brahman.
In order to really appreciate the real meaning of this verse, one has to understand what is the concept of light or Jyoti in Vedanta. According to Vedanta, light is that principle in whose presence things (even emotions, mind, ideas, feelings) are recognized or known, and in whose absence things cannot be known. Keeping in mind this definition alone, this shloka is to be understood. By this principle, the Sun, Moon, fire, lightening are all lights. Now, Vedanta goes further to say that the mind and sense organs are also lights, which “illumine” various aspects of the creation. The mind illumines the thoughts, emotions, feelings and ideas. In the presence of the mind alone things are recognized. If a person is absent minded many a things escape his attention. The sense organs illumine form, colour, taste, texture, smell, sounds etc. Words are also treated as lights, as they can illumine objects in a dark room for a person who suddenly enters there. All the books, Scriptures are also forms of light which illumine different aspects of the world.
Now a very pertinent question would be, what is it that which illumines the mind. Vedanta never leaves any question unanswered. It says the ultimate illuminator is I the Atma or Brahman, the Consciousness, the atma-chaitanyam. The light of Consciousness illumines the mind, which in turn illumines the sense organs and which in turn illumine the various aspects of the creation.
The Sun illumines the earth during the day and the Moon illumines the earth during the night.
There is a fundamental difference though between the two. The Sun illumines the earth with its own light, while the Moon does so with borrowed or reflected light. Similar is the case with atma-ahaitanya and other sources of light. All the other lights like the sense organs, the mind etc all borrow the light or the capacity to illumine from Atma or Brahman which is the ultimate illuminator. All
lights are lights because of Atma alone. Just as the moon cannot and need not illumine the sun, as the sun is self effulgent, similarly Atma cannot and need not be illumined by any other source of light.
Now in the shloka Shankara says by whose light (yadbhasa) are illumined (Bhasyete) powerful lights like the sun, moon and other orbs (arkaadi), but that which cannot be illumined by these powerful lights also (bhasyahi yeh tu na bhaasyete). But by which everything else shines (yena sarvamidam bhaati) that Brahman you realise (tat Brahma iti avadhareyet) as yourself through shravana, mananam and nididdhyasanam.