One shall guard hands and feet by means of the eye.
One shall guard eyes and ears by means of the mind.
One shall guard one’s mind and speech by means of good activity.
One shall eschew fear by means of vigilance and attention.
One shall eradicate arrogance by resorting to intelligent men.
One shall be watchfully alert and conquer the defects of yoga.
One shall bow down to the sacred fires, Brahmins and deities.
One shall avoid arrogant speech coupled with violence.
One shall speak words pleasing to the ear and the mind.
One who has the Knowledge of the Brahman perceives oneself as the entire universe consisting of mobile and immobile beings. He becomes identical with all living beings.
Meditation, self-study of the Veda, charitable gifts, truthfulness, shyness, straightforwardness, forgiveness, cleanliness, purity or the soul and the control of senses are the means by which one’s merit increases and sin decreases.
The devotee practising yoga shall be impartial to all living beings. He shall sustain himself with things available; he shall shed his sins; he shall conquer the sense-organs; and he shall take limited diet. He shall then become brilliant. After subduing lust and anger, he shall resort to the region of the Brahman. He shall maintain purity of the body and mind. Early in the night as well as early in the morning, he shall fix his mind on the soul.
A man has five sense organs. Even if one of them is moistened, his intellect begins to flow out like water from the foot of a mountain.
Just as the killer of fish takes turtles, so the seeker shall take the essence of the mind at the outset. The devotee who is conversant with yoga shall then control ear, eye, tongue and nose. Thereafter if he controls them and fixes them in the mind, he discharges all conceptions (mental fancies) and retains the mind in the soul.
If and when he fixes the five sense-organs in the mind and the heart, when these sense-organs, with the mind as the sixth, abide in the atman, he attains to the Brahman.
He sees his atman in the Atman. It is like the flame that shines free of smoke; it is like the brilliant sun; it is like the fire of lightning in the sky.
Everything is perceived there. Since IT is all-pervading, IT is seen everywhere. Noble-souled Brahmins who are wise, bold, have great intelligence, and who are engaged in
the welfare of all living beings see IT.
The devotee shall practise thus for a limited period. Keen in the practice of the holy rites, he shall seat himself in a secluded spot and attain to similarity with the
Imperishable One.
There are some pitfalls in the achievement of yogic power. The devotee shall avoid them. They are delusion, error, deliberation; miraculous results in regard to smelling,
hearing, seeing and touching; ability to bear cold and heat, gaseous shape; presence of mind and obstacles. By yogic practice, he should control all these. The devotee who understands Reality shall ignore the pitfalls. By means of his equanimity, he shall cause them to recede. The devotee, like a sage practising silence, shall practise yoga
with perfect mental purity.
He shall practise it on the top of a mountain, in a monastery or under a tree.
Just as a merchant who is worried over his articles of trade puts them into a safe, so the aspirant after yoga shall restrain his sense-organs and concentrate his mind. His
mind shall never get fed up with the yogic practice.
He shall adopt means whereby the unsteady mind can be put under control. He shall never swerve there-from. He shall steadily resort to the yogic practice. He shall take up vacant rooms for residence, and maintain concentration. Neither mentally nor verbally nor physically shall he proceed out of bounds. He shall be indifferent to everything worldly. He shall maintain restrictions on his diet. He shall be impartial to everything, whether obtained or not obtained.
Whether anyone congratulates him and wishes him or not, he shall be impartial to one and all. He shall not wish for either welfare or disaster of anyone.
He shall not be delighted with a gain nor worried for a loss. He shall be impartial to all living beings. He shall thus be one having properties similar to those of the wind.
Within six months, the Brahman approaches that devotee whose soul has become healthy and normal, who views everything impartially, who has become virtuous and
perfect, and who is perpetually engaged in yogic practice.
(Thus), the yogi is in a position to view a clod of earth, a piece of rock and an ingot of gold impartially. On seeing others distressed owing to pain, he shall not be deluded,
nor shall he swerve from his path.
Even a man of very low caste or a woman desirous of virtue shall attain to the supreme goal through this path.
On realizing this Unborn, Ancient, Un-ageing, Eternal (Lord) who is Imperceptible and who is beyond the ken of sense-organs, O Brahmins, intelligent men attain to equality
with the Brahman, a goal from which there is no return.
The sages said:
Should the Vedic injunction be ‘Perform rites and renounce them’? Whither do they go by means of Vidya (learning), and what do they (the performers) attain to by means of
holy rites?
We wish to hear this. Your Holiness may be pleased to explain it to us. There is a mutual inconsistency in this (injunction) because both are opposed to each other.
Vyasa said:
Listen, O leading Sages! I shall briefly explain the Kshara (perishable) and Akshara (imperishable) in the form of holy rites and Knowledge about which you have asked me.
Listen now, O Brahmins, to the question whither they go by means of learning and what they attain by means of holy rites. The reply to this (question) is intricate and
complex.
It is but proper to say that Dharma (virtuous action) exists. In the same context, if anyone were to say that it does not exist, then this shall be tantamount to saying that this resembles a Yaksha and that there is no Yaksha.
There are the two paths wherein the Veda is well founded. Dharma is characterized by Pravrtti (activity taking active part in worldly life). The other part is Nivrtti (the mode of
action leading the soul from the world for salvation).
A man is ordinarily bound by activity. But he is liberated only by means of Vidya (Knowledge – Nivrtti). Hence ascetics, the wise ones, do not engage themselves in worldly activity.
On account of activity (by performing various rites), one is reborn after death into an embodied form consisting of sixteen constituents, that is, sense-organs, etc. On
account of Knowledge, one is transformed into the Eternal Un-manifest Brahman, the Akshara or Imperishable One.
Those possessed of inferior intellect praise karma (performance of holy rites). Thereby they attain to a series of bodies to indulge themselves in. They perform worship.
Those who have acquired the highest intellect, those who perceive the efficiency of Dharma do not praise karma, like one who drinks the river water and so does not praise the well.
One attains to happiness and misery, birth and non-birth, as a result of karma. By Knowledge, one attains to that after reaching which one never feels sorry and is ever in
bliss.
