V-91. ‘This (mode) promotes liberation and not bondage. (Witness) the case of the Liberated in-life.
V-92. ‘The conviction that I am no more than a bundle of parts like hands, feet, etc.; is the third mode of self-assertion – it is empirical and petty.
V-93. ‘This root of the evil tree of empirical life is wicked and must be renounced. Smitten by this, the worldly man rapidly falls ever lower.
V-94. ‘Discarding this wicked mode of self-assertion from one’s life, in due course, by virtue of the beneficent mode, one achieves liberation in peace.
V-95. ‘Resorting to the first two non-worldly modes of self-assertion, the third worldly mode that occasions pain must be renounced.
V-96. ‘Next discarding even the first two, one becomes free from all modes of self-assertion and thus ascends to the transcendent status (of freedom).
V-97. ‘Bondage is nothing but craving for objective enjoyment; its renunciation is said to be liberation. Mind’s affirmation is perilous; its negation is great good fortune. The mind of the Knower tends to negation; the mind of the ignorant is the chain (of bondage).
V-98. ‘The (timeless) mind of the Knower is either blissful nor blissless; neither fickle nor stirless. It neither is nor is not. Nor does it occupy a mind position among all these – so maintain the wise.
V-99. ‘Just as, due to subtlety ether, illumined by the Spirit, is not (objectively) perceived, so the impartite Spirit, though all perceiving, is not observed.
V-100. ‘The imperishable Spirit, free from all imaginings and beyond nomenclature, has been assigned designations like one’s Self, etc.
V-101-102. ‘Transparent like a hundredth part of ether, partless as manifested in those who know, ever aware of the sole Self of all that is pure in empirical life, this Spirit neither sets nor rises; neither rises up nor lies (low); neither goes nor returns; it is neither present nor absent here.
V-103. ‘This Spirit has a flawless mode (of its own), indubitable and propless.
V-104. ‘At the very outset, purify the disciple through excellence such as mind’s tranquillity, restraint of sense-organs, etc. Next impart to him the teaching that all this (world) is Brahman, viz., the purified Thou.
V-105. ‘One who teaches an ignoramus or half-awakened (disciple) that ‘all this is Brahman’ will (in effect) plunge him in an endless series of hells.
V-106. ‘But a disciple whose intellect has been well-awakened, whose craving for objective enjoyments has been extinguished, and who is free from all ‘expectations’ is rid of all impurities born of nescience; the wise teacher may instruct him.
V-107. ‘Like its effulgence where there is light, like the day where there is the sun, like the fragrance where there is a flower, so is there a world where there is the Spirit.
V-108. ‘When the view-point of Knowledge is purged, when (the dawn of) awakening spreads vastly, this very world will cease to appear as real.
V-109. ‘Established in yourself, you will realize aright the strength and weakness of the flood of my words (of instruction) – (you will realize it) by the highest mode of nescience that spurs the effort to wipe out the sphere of the petty Self.
V-100. ‘By it (the highest mode of nescience) is won the knowledge that consumes all errors, O Brahmin ! One missile puts another out of action; one flaw destroys its opposite.
V-111. ‘One poison may be neutralised by another; an enemy may destroy another. Such is the wonderful riddle of elements that pleases through self-destruction !
V-112. ‘The real nature of this riddle is not perceived. As it is observed, it perishes – observed with the flaming imagination whose content is: ‘in Truth it exists not at all’.
V-113. ‘He who cherishes with the (creative) and liberating imagination (the thought that) all this is spirit, that the perception of difference is nescience, should renounce this (nescience) in all possible ways.
V-114. ‘sage ! That ultimate Status which is said to be imperishable is (in truth) not won. Twice-born sage ! Speculate not as to whence this (nescience) has arisen.
V-115. ‘Speculate rather on: ‘how shall I destroy it ? Once it is dissipated and dispelled you will (renunciation-)cognise that status.
V-116. ‘That integral status (includes the knowledge) ‘Whence this Maya has come and how it has perished. Therefore try to treat (with remedies) this abode of diseases (i.e. Maya).
V-117-118(a). ‘So that she may not subject you again to the sufferings of birth (etc.,). ‘The sea of the Spirit shines forth in one’s Self with its splendid inner vibrations. With certitude meditate inwardly that is homogeneous and infinite.
V-118(b). ‘The power of the Spirit in the sea of the Spirit is a slightly agitated state of the latter.
V-119. Like a wave in the sea, that pure Power shines forth there, just as the wind automatically blows in the sky.
V-120. ‘In the same way, the Self in itself, by its own power, becomes mobile. That omnipotent Deity flashes forth for a moment.
V-121. ‘Whose potencies of space, time and action are not enhanced (by any means); who is pre-eminently established in her infinitude, being fully conscious of her own essential nature.
V-122. Un-comprehended, She brings into being a finite form. When that supremely enchanting Deity brings forth that (finite) form.
V-123-124(a). Other ideas (views), names, number, etc.; follow her. The individual self (‘Knower of the field’) is the designation of this form of the Spirit, O Brahmin; it is the basis of space, time and activity, and its forms are rooted in manifold (mental) constructions.
V-124(b). ‘He (‘the Knower of the field’) generating latent impressions, again, assumes the form of egoism.
V-125. ‘The tainted egoism, as determiner, is called intellect, which, imagining forms, becomes the base for cogitation (or mind).
V-126. ‘With its profuse imaginings the mind slowly is (transmuted into) sense-organs. The wise deem the body with its hands and feet (nothing but) the senses.
V-127. ‘Thus, indeed, in stages descends the Jiva, bound by the cords of imaginings and impressions, and encompassed by a multitude of sufferings.
V-128. ‘The potent Spirit, thus degenerating into dense egoism, passes voluntarily into bondage as a silk-worm in its cocoon.
V-129. ‘And, like a lion in chains, becomes totally dependent finding itself within a net of its own imaginings and nothing more.
V-130. ‘Sometimes (it operates as) mind, sometimes as intellect; sometimes as cognition; sometimes as (pure) action. Sometimes it is egoism and sometimes it is held to be what is thought.
V-131. ‘Sometimes it is called Prakriti and sometimes it is held to be Maya. Sometimes it is designated a ‘flaw’ and sometimes referred to as ‘action’.
V-132. ‘Sometimes it is proclaimed as bondage and sometimes accounted the ‘eight-fold case’. Sometimes it is said to be avidya and sometimes it is identified with ‘desire’.
V-133. ‘Bearing within itself, as its seeds the fig-tree, this entire empirical sphere that fashions the cords of cravings, the Jiva is verily a tree sans fruits.
V-134-135(a). O Brahmin ! Like an elephant stuck in the morass, is the mind consumed in the flames of worries, crushed by the python of rage, attached to the waves of the sea of lust, and oblivious of its own grand progenitor (the Spirit): — rescue it.
V-135(b)-136. ‘Thus are the Jivas (living beings) phases of the Spirit and established through bringing the empirical sphere into being. Their forms, in lakhs and Crores, have been assigned by Brahma. Numberless (Jivas) were born in the past and even now are being brought forth on all sides.
V-137. ‘Others also will be born like multitudes of water-drops from a water-fall. Some of them are in their first birth; others have (already) had more than a hundred births.
V-138. ‘Yet others have (already) had countless births. Some will have two or more births, besides. Some are born as sub-human and super-human beings, gifted with music and Knowledge; some as mighty reptiles.
V-139. ‘Some of (these living beings) are (to be identified with) the sun, the moon and the lord of waters; others with Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. Some divided themselves as Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Sudras.
V-140. ‘Others with grass, herbs, trees, with their fruits, roots and winged insects. Jivas are (also to be identified with) trees like the Kadamba, the Jambira, the Sama, Tala and Tamala.
V-141. ‘And with mounts like Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Mandara and Meru; and with the seas of salt water, milk, ghee and sugarcane-juice.
V-142. ‘And with the vast quarters, and fast-running rivers; some of these sport high above (the earth); some descend and again fly upwards.
V-143-144(a). ‘Hit ceaselessly by death, as though they are balls hit by the hands, these Jivas are ceaselessly struck down by death as balls are by the hand. Having undergone thousands of births, again, some unwise ones despite (a degree of) discrimination, fall into the turmoils of worldly life.
V-144(b)-145. ‘The principle of the Self, undetermined by space, time, etc.; by virtue of Its power, just sportively assumes a body spatial and temporal. Possessed of innate tendencies (to manifest) various orders of living beings, Itself is the supreme (Lord and Creator) that becomes the mind, that is unstable and inclined to construction and dissolution.
V-146-148(a). ‘In the beginning in a moment, the Constructive Power of the Mind fashions the transparent (image of) space inclined to own, as its essence, the seed of sound. Then, becoming dense, by the process of gross vibrations, that mind brings forth the vibrations of air inclined to own the seed of touch.
V-148(b)-149(a). ‘Of these two space and air, the bases of sound and touch, by intense repetitive frictions, is generated the fire.
V-149(b)-150. ‘Then the mind enriched by these three including rudimentary form proceeds to the notion of pure liquidity and, instantaneously, becomes aware of the coolness of water followed by the perception of water.
V-151. ‘The mind thus enriched by such attributes meditates all at once on rudimentary smell; thence arises the perception of the earth-element.
V-152. ‘Next this body encompassed by the rudimentary elements discards its subtleness beholding in the sky a flash like a spark of fire.
V-153. ‘Conjoined to the element of egoism and the seed of the intellect, this bee in the lotus of the elemental heart is (now) styled the Puryashtaka.
V-154. ‘Due to intensity of yearning in it, by meditating on a resplendent embodiment, the mind grows grosser as a Bilva-fruit does through the process of ripening.
V-155. ‘That effulgence in the sky, shining like liquid gold in a crucible, assumes a form with definite contours by virtue of its inherent nature.
V-156. ‘Upwards is the round head; downwards the feet. Of the two sides are the hands and in the middle what functions as the belly.
V-157(a). ‘In course of time the body (indwelt by the mind) gets fully developed and becomes flawless.
V-157(b)-158(a). ‘That same divine Brahma, the grandfather of the entire world, gets established in intelligence, purity, strength, energy, forms of knowledge and lordship.
V-158(b)-160(a). ‘Beholding his own attractive and pre-eminent body, the blessed Lord, the range of whose perception embraces all the three divisions of time, wondered what first would make its appearance in this supreme space whose essence is pure Spirit and whose limits are nowhere.
V-160(b). ‘Thus wondered Brahma whose vision was as flawless as that of Shiva.
