I-51. The best of the knowers of the Vedas, the great ones, win that fourth and stable perception that is fashioned solely through a part of the light of the Spirit.
I-52. (It is) lodged in the heart of all things and not altogether unlike dreamless slumber, when the mind and the ego subside.
I-53. After liquidating the mind with the mind, that state – that supremely divine bliss-body – is automatically won.
I-54. Thence follows the obliteration of all cravings for objects; then dawns the auspicious and superbly splendid light, and then, in the case of the very best, due to the sway of even-mindness (takes place) the ineffable transformation into the Self’s substance.
I-55. Directly experienced indeed as the God of gods and Self of all entities, moving and stationary is this total and infinite reality of the Self, dwelling in the fast-evolving mind that is quietened externally.
I-56. The unattached, steady, and controlled mind is not in evidence in the worldings; the attached mind, though subjected to long-drawn austerities is, as it were, altogether bound.
I-57. The man free from inner clingings, whose mind dwells on the blissful (Brahman) may or may not act externally; never can he be either agent or experiencer.
II-1. Nidagha: What is attachment like ? What kind of it leads to human bondage ? And what kind of it is said to liberate ? How is this (attachment) cured ?
II-2. (Ribhu): Imagination, ignoring wholly the distinction between the body and the embodied (Self) – the exclusive faith in the body – is the attachment that is said to bind.
II-3. All this is Self: what shall I seek here and what avoid ? Know this to be the position of non-attachment that the Jivanmukta fosters.
II-4. I am not; none, other than me, is; neither this nor the non-other exists. This (attitude) is said to be non-attachment, always maintaining, ‘I am Brahman’.
II-5. He does not approve of inactivity; neither does he cling to activities. He, the renouncer, is the superbly equable (in outlook); he is said to be the non-attached.
II-6. One who mentally, and not in the concrete act alone, renounces fruits, etc., of all his activities – that adept is said to be non-attached.
II-7. Imaginations and the manifold activities issuing (therefrom) are cured, here, by non-indulgence in imagination; thus promote well-being.
II-8-9. The mind that clings not to acts, thoughts, and things, to wanderings and reckonings of time, but reposes in Consciousness alone, finding no delight anywhere, even when turned toward some objects, revels in the Self.
II-10. Let him perform or not all this empirical activity; doing or non-doing, his true occupation is Self-delight.
II-11. Or, giving up even that objective element, as stabilised Consciousness, the tranquillised Jiva abides in the Self like a radiant gem.
II-12. The quiescent state of the attenuated mind, free from all objective reference, is said to be the deep sleep in wakefulness.
II-13. This state of slumber, O Nidagha, fully developed through practice, is styled the Fourth by the best knowers of Truth.
II-14. Having attained the indestructible status in this fourth stage, one reaches a non-blissful poise (as it were), its nature being invariably delightful.
II-15. Thence lifted above all relativities, like non-bliss and great bliss, the time-less Yogin, reaching the state beyond the fourth, is said to be liberated.
II-16. With all bonds of birth loosened, and all Tamasic conceits dissolved, the great sage (abides) as the blissful being of the supreme Self like a salt-crystal in water.
II-17. That which is the trans-empirical and experiential reality, present in the (contrasted) perceptions of the material and the conscious, is the essence; Brahman is said to be that.
II-18(a). Bondage is encompassed by the object; on release from this, liberation is said to supervene.
II-18(b)-19. Resting in that unvexed experience, discriminated in the link between the substance and perception, abide you; thus one attains the (peace) of deep sleep. That develops into the Fourth; station your gaze on That.
II-20. The Self is neither gross nor subtle; neither manifest nor hidden; neither spiritual nor material; neither non-being nor being.
II-21. That non-dual indestructible one which has become the object, the ground of mind and all sense-organs, is neither ‘I’ nor another; neither one nor many.
II-22. That real joy (experienced) in the relation between the object and perception is the transcendental state; therefore it is, as it were, nothing (in itself).
II-23. Liberation is not on the top of the sky; not in the nether world; not on the earth. The dwindling of mind in which all desires dry up is held to be liberation.
II-24. With the thought, within, ‘let me have liberation’ the mind springs up; this worldly bondage is firm in the mind agitated with thought.
II-25. The mere non-cleansing of the mind reduces it to a state of prodigious transmigration; its cleansing alone, on the other hand, is said to be liberation.
II-26. What is bondage and what is liberation in respect of the Self that transcends all things or that pervades all forms ? Think freely.
II-27. Loving the Spirit, lifted above all hopes, full, holy in mind, having won the incomparable state of repose, he seeks nothing here.
II-28. He is called the Jivanmukta (Liberated in life) who lives, unattached, in the pure Being that sustains all, the indubitable Spirit that is the Self.
II-29. He craves not for what is yet to be; he does not bank on the present; he remembers not the past; yet he does all work.
II-30. Ever unattached to those who cling to him; devoted to the devotees; he is harsh, as it were, to the harsh.
II-31. A child amidst children; adult amidst adults; bold amidst the bold; a youth amidst the youthful; lamenting amidst those who lament;
II-32. Steadfast, blissful, polished, of holy speech, wise, simple and sweet; never given to self-pity;
II-33. Through discipline, when the throb of vital breaths ceases, the mind is wholly dissolved; the impersonal bliss (Nirvana) remains;
II-34. Whence all discursive speech turns back. With the obliteration of all of one’s mental constructions that (Brahmic) status abides.
II-35. Here is the supreme Self whose essence is the light of Consciousness without beginning or end; the wise hold this luminous certitude to be the right knowledge.
II-36. The plenitude due to the knowledge ‘all the world is Self alone’ is the right measure of Self-realization everywhere in the world.
II-37. All is Self alone; what are the (empirical) states being and non-being ? Where have they fled ? Where are those notions of bondage and liberation ? What stands out is Brahman alone.
II-38. All is the one supreme Sky. What is liberation ? What is bondage ? This is the great Brahman, established mightily, with extended form; duality has vanished far from It; be you, yourself, the Self alone.
II-39. When the form of a stock, stone and cloth is seen aright, there is not even a shadow of difference; bent on imagination (of differences) where are you ?
II-40. This imperishable and tranquil essence, (present) at the beginning and end of things and yourself, always be That.
II-41. With mental distinctions of duality and non-duality and delusions of old age and death, the Self alone shines in its phases (atmabhih) just as the sea, in its (phases of) waves.
II-42. What enjoyment of the desired (fruits) can disturb him, who dwells steadfast, ever wedded, in thought, to the pure Self that fells the tree of dangers, to the status of bliss supreme ?
II-43. Mental enjoyments are the foes of one who has thought extensively; they move him not in the least just as gentle breezes move not a hill at all.
II-44. ‘Plurality exists in diverse imaginings, not really, within; just as there is nothing but water in a lake’ – a man filled with this one certitude is said to be liberated; he who has perceived the Real.
III-1. (Nidagha): What is the nature of liberation without the body ? Who is the great sage in possession of it ? Resorting to which Yoga has he achieved that supreme status ?
III-2. Ribhu: In the region of Sumeru the celebrated sage Mandavya resorting to Truth (imparted by) Kaundinya became liberated in life.
III-3. Having attained the status of Jivanmukti, that foremost knower of Brahman, that great sage, made up his mind, once upon a time, to withdraw all his sense-organs (from their respective objects).
III-4. He sat in the lotus-posture, with eyes half-closed, slowly avoiding contacts (with objects), external and internal.
III-5. Then he, with his sinless mind, (reflected on) the (degree of) steadiness of his mind: ‘clearly, though withdrawn, this mind of mine is extremely restless’.
III-6. It wanders from a cloth to a pot and thence to a big cart. The mind wanders among objects as a monkey does from tree to tree.
III-7. The five openings, eyes and so forth, known as the sense organs of cognition, I am watching carefully with my mind.
III-8. O you sense-organs ! Slowly give up your mood of agitation. Here I am, the divine spiritual Self, the witness of all.
III-9. With that all-knowing Self, I have comprehended (the nature of) eyes, etc. I am
completely secure and at peace. Luckily I am fearless.
III-10. Incessantly I rest in my Self, the Fourth; my vital breaths, its extensions, have all, in due order, subsided within.
III-11. (I am) as a fire with its multitudinous flames, when the fuel has been consumed; it blazed forth but now is extinguished – the blazing fire has, indeed, been extinguished.
III-12. Having been purified utterly, I remain equable, enjoying all alike, as it were. I am awake though in deep sleep; though in deep sleep, I am awake.
III-13-14. Resorting to the Fourth, I remain within the body with a stable status, having abandoned, together with the long thread of sound reaching upto OM, objects in all the three worlds fashioned by imagination.
III-15. As a bird, for flying in the sky, leaves the net (in which it was enmeshed), the great sage sheds (his) identification with the sense-organs; then (he sheds) his awareness of limbs which has become illusory.
III-16. He has won the knowledge of a new-born infant; as if the air should give up its power to vibrate, he has terminated the proneness of consciousness to attach itself to objects.
III-17. Then, attaining the unqualified state of Consciousness – the state of pure Being –resorting, (as it were), to the state of dreamless slumber, he has stayed immovable like a mountain.
III-18. Winning the stability of dreamless sleep he has attained the Fourth; though gone beyond bliss, (he is) still blissful; he has become both being and non-being.
III-19. Then he becomes that which is beyond even the range of words which is the nihil of the nihilist and Brahman of the knowers of Brahman;
III-20. Which is the pure blemishless cognition of the knowers of cognition, the Purusha of the Sankhyas and Ishvara of the Yogins;
III-21. The Shiva of the Shivagamas; the Time of those who affirm Time alone (as the basic principle); the final doctrine of all Shastras, and what conforms to every heart;
III-22. Which is the All, the all-pervading Reality, the Truth. He has become That, the unuttered, the moveless, the illuminator even of lights;
III-23. The Principle whose sole proof is one’s experience of It – he has remained as That.
III-24. That which is unborn, deathless, beginningless and the First immaculate state, whole and impartite – he has remained as That; a state subtler than that of the sky. In a moment, he has become the hallowed God.
