AVG 6.3

Chapter 6 (Patterns that point to a peerless awareness) Verse 3
अहं स शुक्तिसङ्काशो रूप्यवद्विश्वकल्पना ।
इति ज्ञानं तथैतस्य न त्यागो न ग्रहो लयः ॥ ६-३॥

PURPORT:
That I am like mother-of-pearl, but, via the
illusory projections of the world, seems like silver.
This is pure nonpareil awareness and
on realization, this phenomenal world needs
neither abdication nor acceptance nor negation.

TRANSLITERATION:
अहम् सः शुक्तिसङ्काशः रूप्यवत् विश्वकल्पना ।
aham saḥ śuktisaṅkāśaḥ rūpyavat viśvakalpanā ।
इति ज्ञानम् तथा एतस्य न त्यागः न ग्रहः लयः ॥ ६-१॥
iti jñānam tathā etasya na tyāgaḥ na grahaḥ layaḥ ॥ 6-3॥

MEANING:
aham (अहम्) = I
saḥ (सः) = that
śuktisaṅkāśaḥ (शुक्तिसङ्काशः) = resembling nacre or the mother-of-pearl (compound of śukti (शुक्ति) meaning ‘nacre/mother-of-pearl’ and saṅkāśaḥ (सङ्काशः) meaning ‘resemblance/alikeness’)
rūpyavat (रूप्यवत्) = like silver
viśvakalpanā (विश्वकल्पना) = the conception/projection of the world (compound of viśva (विश्व) meaning ‘world’ and kalpanā (कल्पना) meaning ‘projection/imagination/conception’)।
iti (इति) = this
jñānam (ज्ञानम्) = knowledge/awareness
tathā (तथा) = so
etasya (एतस्य) = of this (as in 'of this phenomenal world')
na (न) = not
tyāgaḥ (त्यागः) = renouncement/abdication/surrender (please refer to 6-1 for context)
na (न) = not
grahaḥ (ग्रहः) = recognition/acceptance (please refer to 6-1 for context)
layaḥ (लयः) =  dissolved/negated (please refer to 6-1 for context) ॥ 6-3॥

COMMENT:
The central theme of this verse remains the motif of oneness; this verse talks about the individual's perceptions of the phenomenal world where projections of the phenomenal world upon the seeker are akin to be mistaken by a seeker in much the same way one mistakes the iridescent luster of nacre formed on the inner shell of mollusks to be sterling silver. The experiential illusion of mistaking nacre for silver is an example of the phenomenal world and our sensorium co-arising to create our own version of interpreted reality; the co-arising itself being a dependent process involving the responses of our sensorium and the corresponding stimuli from the phenomenal world that influences the sense faculties. Therefore, Ashtavakra, using the foil of nacre vis-à-vis silver informs us that the response of our sense faculties to corresponding phenomenal stimuli are not merely sovereign events and experiences, but, they are aspects of the same integral experience that co-arise dependently.
Thus, our awareness and conceptual framework of forms and structures that constitute the phenomenal world are really determined by the series of neurological actions that provide for perception and awareness - which means that the phenomenal world as we understand it must be discerned in the interplay and cooperation between our senses and external stimuli rather than accepted as an absolute truth that is supposed to endure autonomously. Therefore, it is not the phenomenal world that decides and regulates the perceptions of sentient biologies like ours, but, the perceptual competencies and capacities of sentients that determine the way beings like us correspondingly perceive our own environments and ecosystems. Each one of us creates our own world as limited or as expansive as we confine it to be circumscribed and orchestrated by the impediments or advantages conferred thereof to each individual sentient as a result of natural selection.