What is the Self and the non-self? || Acharya Prashant, on Avadhuta Gita (2016)

येनेदं पूरितं सर्वमात्मनैवाअत्मनात्मनि ।निराकारं कथं वन्दे ह्यभिन्नं शिवमव्ययम् ।।२।।

yenedaṃ pūritaṃ sarvamātmanaivātmanātmani ।nirākāraṃ kathaṃ vande hyabhinnaṃ śivamavyayam ॥ 2॥

All that exists in the world of forms is nothing else but the Self, and the Self alone. How, then, shall the Infinite worship Itself? Shiva is one divided Whole!

~ Avadhuta Gita (Chapter 1, Verse 2)

Question: Acharya Ji, Pranaam! Please explain these lines from Avadhuta Gita.

Acharya Prashant: These lines are not uttered by the common mind, the one we see all around us. Dattatreya is saying, “All that which exists is the Self.”

The mind is programmed to see diversity, the mind is programmed to see differences. When you open your eyes and look around, there is no Oneness that you see. You open your eyes, and all that you see is different forms, different colours, names, things, and objects. The entire world in which things are known, is only because they are different from each other.