Gaudapada (Adi Shankara's Guru's Guru) in his treatise Agama Shastra (which is an exploratory vision of Manudkya Upanishad) gives an allegory: An empty pot has space inside it and outside it. The space inside may be an absolute state of bliss so far as the pot is concerned; however, the pot still separates the space inside it from the space outside. This pot must be shattered and broken to pieces so that the inner being melts into the oneness. When this barrier breaks, this layer of the pot (the space inside it) is no different from the space outside it - it just melts into oneness. The shell (layer of the pot) only acts as a tool that finally dissolves (breaks open) leaving the pure emptiness inside to surface and merge with the emptiness outside.