Translated by Swami Tyagisananda – Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai
Om ! May Brahman protect us both together.
May He nourish us both together.
May we both work together, with great energy.
May our study be vigorous and effective.
May we not hate each other.
Om ! Peace ! Peace ! Peace !
I-1: Students of Brahman (i.e. the Vedas) discuss (among themselves): What is the cause ? (Is it) Brahman ? Whence are we born ? Why do we live ? Where is our final rest ? Under whose orders are we, who know the Brahman, subjected to the law of happiness and misery ?
I-2: Time, nature, law, chance, matter, energy, intelligence – neither these, nor combination of these, can bear examination because of their own birth, identity and the existence of the self. The self also is not a free agent, being under the sway of happiness and misery.
I-3: Practising the method of meditation, they realized that Being who is the God of religion, the Self of philosophy and the Energy of science; who exists as the self-luminous power in everyone; who is the source of the intellect, emotions and will; who is one without a second; who presides over all the causes enumerated above, beginning with time and ending with the individual soul; and who had been incomprehensible because of the limitations of their own intellect.
I-4: We think of Him as the universe resembling a wheel which has one felly with a triple tyre, sixteen extremities, fifty spokes, twenty counter-spokes and six sets of eight; which is driven along three different roads by means of a belt that is single yet manifold; and which each revolution gives rise to two.
I-5: We think of Him (in His manifestation as the universe) who is like a river that contains the waters of five streams; that has five big turnings due to five causes; that has the five Pranas for the waves, the mind – the basis of five-fold perception – for the source, and the five-fold misery for its rapids; and that has five whirlpools, five branches and innumerable aspects.
I-6: In this infinite wheel of Brahman, in which everything lives and rests, the pilgrim soul is whirled about. Knowing the individual soul, hitherto regarded as separate, to be itself the Moving Force, and blessed by Him, it attains immortality.
I-7: This is expressly declared to be the Supreme Brahman. In that is the triad. It is the firm support, and it is the imperishable. Knowing the inner essence of this, the knowers of Veda become devoted to Brahman, merge themselves in It, and are released from birth.
I-8: The Lord supports this universe, which consists of a combination of the perishable and the imperishable, the manifest and the unmanifest. As long as the self does not know the Lord, it gets attached to worldly pleasures, and is bound; but when it knows Him, all fetters fall away from it.
I-9: The conscious subject and the unconscious object, the master and the dependent, are both unborn. She, too, who is engaged in bringing about the relation of the enjoyer and the enjoyed (or between these two), is unborn. When all these three are realized as Brahman, the self becomes infinite, universal and free from the sense of agentship.
I-10: Matter is perishable, but God is imperishable and immortal. He, the only God, rules over the perishable matter and individual souls. By meditating on him, by uniting with Him, and by becoming one with Him, there is cessation of all illusion in the end.
I-11: With the knowledge of God, all fetters fall off. With the waning of ignorance, birth and death cease. Going beyond the consciousness of the body by meditating on Him, one reaches the third state, viz., the universal lordship. All his desires are satisfied, and he becomes one without a second.
I-12: This is to be known as eternally existing in one’s own self. Indeed, there is nothing to be known beyond this. As a result of meditation the enjoyer, the enjoyed and the power which brings about the enjoyment – all are declared to be the three aspects of Brahman.
I-13: Fire is not perceived in its source, the fire-stick, till it is ignited by percussion. The subtle essence of fire, nevertheless, is not absent in the stick; for fire can be obtained from the source, the fire-stick, by striking again. (The state of the Atman before and after realization). By meditating on the Pranava, the Atman is perceived manifestly in the body, (but it was there in a latent state even before realization).
I-14: Making one’s own body the lower piece of wood, and the Pranava the upper piece of wood, and practising churning in the form of meditation, one should realize God as one would find out something hidden.
I-15-16: As oil in sesame seeds, as butter in curds, as water in underground springs, as fire in wood, even so this Self is perceived in the self. He who, by means of truthfulness, self-control and concentration, looks again and again for this Self, which is all-pervading like butter contained in milk, and which is rooted in self-knowledge and meditation – he becomes that Supreme Brahman, the destroyer of ignorance.
II-1: First harnessing the mind and the senses with a view to realizing the Truth, and then having found out the light of the fire, the Evolving Soul brought itself out of the earth.
II-2: With our minds controlled so as to manifest the self-luminous Immanent Soul, we shall vigorously endeavour for the attainment of supreme bliss.
II-3: Controlling the heaven-aspiring senses with the help of the mind and the intellect, the Immanent Soul so regenerates them as to enable them to manifest the self-luminous Infinite Light.
II-4: Great is the glory of the Immanent Soul who is all-pervading, all-knowing, infinite and self-luminous. Only those rare few who know, undergo the necessary discipline and spiritual practices. The wise do, indeed, control the activities of the intellect, and practise meditation and concentration.
II-5: Following only in the footsteps of the wise, I merge you both in the ancient Brahman by continued meditation. May the Glorious One manifest Himself ! May the sons of Immortal Bliss hearken to me – even they who occupy celestial regions !
II-6: Where fire is churned out, where air is controlled, where Soma juice overflows – there the mind attains perfection.
II-7: Attaining whom thou destroyest the source and art no more troubled by the results of past actions – to that ancient Brahman be thou devoted through the Prime Cause, the Immanent Soul.
II-8: Placing the body in a straight posture, holding the chest, throat and head erect, and drawing the senses and the mind into the heart, the knowing one should cross over all the fearful currents by means of the raft of Brahman.
II-9: Controlling the senses with an effort, and regulating the activities in the body, one should breathe out through the nostrils when the vital activities become gentle. Then the knowing one, without being in the least distracted, should keep his hold on the mind as on the reins attached to restive horses.
II-10: One should perform one’s exercises in concentration, resorting to caves and such other pure places helpful to its practice – places where the ground is level without pebbles, and the scenery pleasing to the eyes; where there is no wind, dust, fire, dampness and disturbing noises.
II-11: Forms that appear like snow, smoke, sun, wind, fire, fire-fly, lightning, crystal and moon, precede the manifestation of Brahman in Yoga practice.
II-12: When the fivefold perception of Yoga, arising from (concentrating the mind on) earth, water, light, air and ether, have appeared to the Yogin, then he has become possessed of a body made of the fire of Yoga, and he will not be touched by disease, old age or death.
II-13: It is said that the first signs of entering Yoga are lightness of body, health, thirstlessness of mind, clearness of complexion, a beautiful voice, an agreeable odour and scantiness excretions.
II-14: Just as the same metal disc, which was stained by dust before, shines brilliantly when cleaned, so the embodied being, seeing the truth of Atman, realizes oneness, attains the goal and becomes sorrowless.
II-15: When the Yogin realizes the truth of Brahman, through the perception of the truth of Atman in this body as a self-luminous entity, then, knowing the Divinity as unborn, eternal and free from all the modifications of Prakriti, he is freed from all sins.
II-16: This Divinity pervades all directions in their entirety. He is the first-born (Hiranyagarbha). He has entered into the womb. He alone is born, and is to be born in future. He is inside all persons as the Indwelling Self, facing all directions.
II-17: Salutations to that Divinity who is in the fire, who is in the water, who is in the plants, who is in the trees, who has pervaded the whole universe.
III-1: It is the self-same One who exists alone at the time of creation and dissolution of the universe, that assumes manifold powers and appears as the Divine Lord by virtue of His inscrutable power of Maya. He it is that protects all the worlds and controls all the various forces working therein. Those who realize this Being becomes immortal.
III-2: He who protects and controls the worlds by His own powers, He – Rudra – is indeed one only. There is no one beside Him who can make Him the second. O men, He is present inside the hearts of all beings. After projecting and maintaining all the worlds, He finally withdraws them into Himself.
III-3: Though God, the creator of heaven and earth, is one only, yet Heaven is the real owner of all the eyes, faces, hands and feet in this universe. It is Heaven who inspires them all to do their respective duties in accordance with the knowledge, past actions and tendencies of the various beings (with whom they appear to be associated).
III-4: May Heaven, who created the gods and supports them; who is the origin also of the cosmic soul; who confers bliss and wisdom on the devotes, destroying their sins and sorrows, and punishing all breaches of law – may Heaven, the great seer and the lord of all, endow us with good thoughts.
III-5: O Lord, who blesses all creatures by revealing the Vedas, deign to make us happy by Thy calm and blissful self, which roots out terror as well as sin.
III-6: O revealer of the Vedic truths, deign to make propitious that arrow which Thou holdest in Thy hand for shooting at somebody. O protector of devotees, do not destroy that benign personal form of Thine which has manifested as the universe.
III-7: Higher than this Personal Brahman is the infinite Supreme Brahman, who is concealed in all beings according to their bodies, and who, though remaining single, envelops the whole universe. Knowing him to be the Lord, one becomes immortal.
III-8: I have realized this Great Being who shines effulgent like the sun beyond all darkness. One passes beyond death only on realizing Him. There is no other way of escape from the circle of births and deaths.
III-9: There is naught higher than or different from Him; naught greater or more minute than Him. Rooted in His own glory He stands like a tree, one without a second and immovable. By that Being the whole universe is filled.
III-10: That Being is far beyond this world, is formless and free from misery. They who know this become immortal. But all others have indeed to suffer misery alone.
