191. Owing to Its connection with the super-impositions, the Supreme Self, even thou naturally perfect (transcending Nature) and
eternally unchanging, assumes the qualities of the superimpositions and appears to act just as they do – like the changeless fire
assuming the modifications of the iron which it turns red-hot.
192. The disciple questioned: Be it through delusion or otherwise that the Supreme Self has come to consider Itself as the Jiva, this
superimposition is without beginning, and that which has no beginning cannot be supposed to have an end either.
193. Therefore the Jivahood of the soul also must have no end, and its transmigration must continue for ever. How then can there be
Liberation for the soul ? Kindly enlighten me on this point, O revered Master.
194. The Teacher said: Thou hast rightly questioned, O learned man ! Listen therefore attentively: The imagination which has been
conjured up by delusion can never be accepted as a fact.
195. But for delusion there can be no connection of the Self – which is unattached, beyond activity and formless – with the objective
world, as in the case of blueness etc., with reference to the sky.
196. The Jivahood of the Atman, the Witness, which is beyond qualities and beyond activity, and which is realised within as
Knowledge and Bliss Absolute – has been superimposed by the delusion of the Buddhi, and is not real. And because it is by nature
an unreality, it ceases to exist when the delusion is gone.
197. It exists only so long as the delusion lasts, being caused by indiscrimination due to an illusion. The rope is supposed to be the
snake only so long as the mistake lasts, and there is no more snake when the illusion has vanished. Similar is the case here.
198-199. Avidya or Nescience and its effects are likewise considered as beginningless. But with the rise of Vidya or realisation, the
entire effects of Avidya, even though beginningless, are destroyed together with their root – like dreams on waking up from sleep. It
is clear that the phenomenal universe, even though without beginning, is not eternal – like previous non-existence.
200-201. Previous non-existence, even though beginningless, is observed to have an end. So the Jivahood which is imagined to be in
the Atman through its relation with superimposed attributes such as the Buddhi, is not real; whereas the other (the Atman) is
essentially different from it. The relation between the Atman and the Buddhi is due to a false knowledge.
202. The cessation of that superimposition takes place through perfect knowledge, and by no other means. Perfect knowledge,
according to the Shrutis, consists in the realisation of the identity of the individual soul and Brahman.
203. This realisation is attained by a perfect discrimination between the Self and the non-Self. Therefore one must strive for the
discrimination between the individual soul and the eternal Self.
204. Just as the water which is very muddy again appears as transparent water when the mud is removed, so the Atman also
manifests Its undimmed lustre when the taint has been removed.
205. When the unreal ceases to exist, this very individual soul is definitely realised as the eternal Self. Therefore one must make it a
point completely to remove things like egoism from the eternal Self.
206. This knowledge sheath (Vijnanamaya Kosha) that we have been speaking of, cannot be the Supreme Self for the following
reasons – because it is subject to change, is insentient, is a limited thing, an object of the senses, and is not constantly present:
An unreal thing cannot indeed be taken for the real Atman.
207. The blissful sheath (Anandamaya Kosha) is that modification of Nescience which manifests itself catching a reflection of the
Atman which is Bliss Absolute; whose attributes are pleasure and the rest; and which appears in view when some object agreeable
to oneself presents itself. It makes itself spontaneously felt by the fortunate during the fruition of their virtuous deeds; from which
every corporeal being derives great joy without the least effort.
208. The blissful sheath has its fullest play during profound sleep, while in the dreaming and wakeful states it has only a partial
manifestation, occasioned by the sight of agreeable objects and so forth.
209. Nor is the blissful sheath the Supreme Self, because it is endowed with the changeful attributes, is a modification of the
Prakriti, is the effect of past good deeds, and imbedded in the other sheaths which are modifications.
210. When all the five sheaths have been eliminated by the reasoning on Shruti passages, what remains as the culminating point of
the process, is the Witness, the Knowledge Absolute – the Atman.
211. This self-effulgent Atman which is distinct from the five sheaths, the Witness of the three states, the Real, the Changeless, the
Untainted, the everlasting Bliss – is to be realised by the wise man as his own Self.
212. The disciple questioned: After these five sheaths have been eliminated as unreal, I find nothing, O Master, in this universe but a
Void, the absence of everything. What entity is there left forsooth with which the wise knower of the Self should realise his identity.
213-214. The Guru answered: Thou has rightly said, O learned man ! Thou art clever indeed in discrimination. That by which all
those modifications such as egoism as well as their subsequent absence (during deep sleep) are perceived, but which Itself is not
perceived, know thou that Atman – the Knower – through the sharpest intellect.
215. That which is perceived by something else has for its witness the latter. When there is no agent to perceive a thing, we cannot
speak of it as having been perceived at all.
