Verse 137Awareness
One Light of Knowing and Known
Bhairava
This verse says that awareness is like the light that makes everything visible, including thoughts and ideas. Without that light, nothing could be known at all. The seeming split between the knower and the thing known is something the mind adds.
विज्ञानभैरव तन्त्रम् ज्ञानप्रकाशकं सर्वेणात्मा प्रकाशकः । एकवमकस्वभावत्वात्ज्ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं विभाव्यते ॥ १३७ ॥
vijñāna-bhairava-tantram | jñāna-prakāśakaṃ sarvaṃ ātma prakāśakaḥ | ekātmakasvabhāvatvāj jñānaṃ jñeyaṃ vibhāvyate || 137 ||
Translation
The self is the illuminator of all that illuminates knowledge. Because it has the nature of being one, knowledge and the known are imagined as distinct.
To recognize that the self is the single light by which both knowing and objects known appear.