The Self not Affected by the Limitations of the Many
सूर्यो यथा सर्वलोकस्य चक्षुः
न लिप्यते चाक्षुषैर्बाह्यदोषैः ।
एकस्तथा सर्वभूतान्तरात्मा
न लिप्यते लोकदुःखेन बाह्यः ॥ ११॥
sūryo yathā sarvalokasya cakṣuḥ
na lipyate cākṣuṣairbāhyadoṣaiḥ .
ekastathā sarvabhūtāntarātmā
na lipyate lokaduḥkhena bāhyaḥ .. 11..
As the sun, which helps all eyes to see, is not affected by the blemishes of the eyes or of the external things revealed by it, so also the one Atman, dwelling in all beings, is never contaminated by the misery of the world, being outside it.
Commentary:
How is the Atman unaffected? Like the sun is the Atman unaffected. If we spit at the sun, or praise or abuse the sun, it does not affect it. Just as the sun, the eye of all the world, is not affected by the way it is viewed by all people, likewise is the Atman transcendent to the world and is unaffected by it. Change, increase, decrease, decay and death are the characteristics of the world. They do not touch the Atman. Physical and ethical characteristics, characteristics of the senses and the mind, do not reach the Atman, because the Atman is far, far removed from the operation of the jiva’s samsara. Without the sun we cannot live, and yet nothing that happens to us affects the sun. Even so, the Atman does not take either of our good or bad. Though the Atman is immanent, it stands transcendent.
Swami Vivekananda Says —
As the sun is the cause of the eyesight of every being, yet is not made defective by the defect in any eye, even so the Self of all is not affected by the miseries of the body, or by any misery that is around you.” I may have some disease and see everything yellow, but the sun is not affected by it.[Source]
If a man has jaundice he sees everything as yellow; the cause of his vision is the sun, but his seeing everything as yellow does not touch the sun. Even so this One Being, though the Self of every one, is not touched by the purities or impurities outside.[Source]