66. Therefore the wise should, as in the case of disease and the like, personally strive by all the means in their power to be free from
the bondage of repeated births and deaths.
67. The question that thou hast asked today is excellent, approved by those versed in the Scriptures, aphoristic, pregnant with
meaning and fit to be known by the seekers after Liberation.
68. Listen attentively, O learned one, to what I am going to say. By listening to it thou shalt be instantly free from the bondage of
Samsara.
69. The first step to Liberation is the extreme aversion to all perishable things, then follow calmness, self-control, forbearance, and
the utter relinquishment of all work enjoined in the Scriptures.
70. Then come hearing, reflection on that, and long, constant and unbroken meditation on the Truth for the Muni. After that the
learned seeker attains the supreme Nirvikalpa state and realises the bliss of Nirvana even in this life.
71. Now I am going to tell thee fully about what thou oughtst to know – the discrimination between the Self and the non-Self. Listen
to it and decide about it in thy mind.
72. Composed of the seven ingredients, viz. marrow, bones, fat, flesh, blood, skin and cuticle, and consisting of the following limbs
and their parts – legs, thighs, the chest, arms, the back and the head:
73. This body, reputed to be the abode of the delusion of ‘I and mine’, is designated by sages as the gross body. The sky, air, fire,
water and earth are subtle elements. They –
74. Being united with parts of one another and becoming gross, (they) form the gross body. And their subtle essences form
sense-objects – the group of five such as sound, which conduce to the happiness of the experiencer, the individual soul.
75. Those fools who are tied to these sense-objects by the stout cord of attachment, so very difficult to snap, come and depart, up
and down, carried amain by the powerful emissary of their past action.
76. The deer, the elephant, the moth, the fish and the black-bee – these five have died, being tied to one or other of the five senses,
viz. sound etc., through their own attachment. What then is in store for man who is attached to all these five.
77. Sense-objects are even more virulent in their evil effects than the poison of the cobra. Poison kills one who takes it, but those
others kill one who even looks at them through the eyes.
78. He who is free from the terrible snare of the hankering after sense-objects, so very difficult to get rid of, is alone fit for Liberation,
and none else – even though he be versed in all the six Shastras.
79. The shark of hankering catches by the throat those seekers after Liberation who have got only an apparent dispassion
(Vairagya) and are trying to cross the ocean of samsara (relative existence), and violently snatching them away, drowns them
half-way.
80. He who has killed the shark known as sense-object with the sword of mature dispassion, crosses the ocean of Samsara, free
from all obstacles.
81. Know that death quickly overtakes the stupid man who walks along the dreadful ways of sense-pleasure; whereas one who
walks in accordance with the instructions of a well-wishing and worthy Guru, as also with his own reasoning, achieves his end –
know this to be true.
82. If indeed thou hast a craving for Liberation, shun sense-objects from a good distance as thou wouldst do poison, and always
cultivate carefully the nectar-like virtues of contentment, compassion, forgiveness, straight-forwardness, calmness and self-control.
83. Whoever leaves aside what should always be attempted, viz. emancipation from the bondage of Ignorance without beginning,
and passionately seeks to nourish this body, which is an object for others to enjoy, commits suicide thereby.
84. Whoever seeks to realise the Self by devoting himself to the nourishment of the body, proceeds to cross a river by catching hold
of a crocodile, mistaking it for a log.
85. So for a seeker after Liberation the infatuation over things like the body is a dire death. He who has thoroughly conquered this
deserves the state of Freedom.
