Nikhilananda on Known and Unknown

 "Brahman is different from the known, that is to say, from the tangible world of name and form, because It is the Eye of the eye, and so on. All tangible objects can be known somehow, by someone, and to some extent. Brahman is quite different from such objects.

Lest the disciple should misunderstand the statement of the teacher and conclude that Brahman is altogether unknown, the preceptor says that It is above the unknown. The word unknown means the unmanifested avidyā, which is the seed of the gross universe.

By describing Brahman as both distinct from the known and above the unknown, the text indicates that Brahman is Atman, or the inmost Self of the knower; for none other than one’s own Atman can be distinct from both the known and the unknown.”

~Nikhilananda on Kena 1.4

Nikhilananda on Brahman and Atman

 “Atman is the deathless, birthless, eternal, and real Substance in every individual. It is the unchanging Reality behind the changing body, sense-organs, mind, and ego. It is Spirit, which is Pure Consciousness and is unaffected by time, space, and causality;

Therefore It is limitless and One without a second. As the unchanging Reality in the individual is called Atman, so the unchanging Reality in the universe is called Brahman. Brahman, too, is beyond time, space, and causality and is all-pervading Spirit.

Vedanta states that Brahman and Atman are one and the same. The knowledge of this identity or non-difference is called Self-Knowledge."

~Nikhilananda (from commentary on Atmabodha) 

Nikhilananda on the Rediscovery of Knowledge

“According to Vedanta the truth about man is that he is Brahman, or Infinite Spirit. The cause of his bondage and suffering is ignorance of his real nature. Knowledge destroys this ignorance and Self-Realization immediately follows.

Spiritual disciplines purify the heart, train the aspirant in concentration, and thus create the necessary condition for the revelation of Knowledge, which always exists. Since the Self is by nature eternal and immortal, It cannot be the result of an antecedent cause.

Knowledge, Liberation, Self, and Consciousness all denote the same spiritual experience. Knowledge is the cause of Liberation only in a figurative sense. The attainment of Knowledge really means the rediscovery of Knowledge, which is never non-existent.”

~Nikhilananda (from commentary on Atmabodha)