“I was once Manu, I was once the Sun.” And also even today he, who realizes this “ I am Brahman,” becomes this universe: and also the gods have no power to produce that which he will not. Because he is the soul (Ātman) of the same. Now he, who adores any other godhead (than the Ātman, the self) and says :”It is different, and I am different”, does not know; he is just like a domestic animal of the gods…..

This shlöka includes the second of the Māhāvākyas . It very succinctly relates the Unknown, Brahman to the Ātman. This, the individual consciousness, realizes “Itself” as the central, “I”, …..Douglas R. Hofstadter[16] explains this beautifully when he introduces M. C. Escher’s ‘The Drawing Hands’ as, what he calls, the Tangled Hierarchy…….

Here a left hand (LH) draws a right hand (RH), while at the same time, RH draws LH. Once again , levels which ordinarily are seen hierarchical – that which draws, and that which is drawn – turn back on each other creating a Tangled Hierarchy. Note, that behind this lurks the undrawn but the drawing hand of M. C. Escher, creator of both the LH and RH.