II-11. Feeling of non-duality is the alms (which is consumed) and the feeling of duality is the thing unfit for consumption. The receiving of alms by the mendicant monk is ordained in accordance with the directions of the Guru and the scripture.
II-12. After embracing renunciation of his own accord the wise man shall move away from his native place and live far away, like a thief who has been released from prison.
II-13. No sooner has (the ascetic) moved away from the son of ego, the brother of wealth, the home of delusion and the wife of desires than he is liberated (from worldly bondage); there is no doubt about it.
II-14-15. How shall I perform the twilight worship (Sandhya, i.e., there is no need for it) when the mother of delusion is (just) dead and the son of true awakening is born, causing two-fold impurity ? How can I perform twilight worship when the bright sun of consciousness ever shines in the sky of the heart and it never sets or rises ? (i.e. there is no twilight at all and hence there is no scope for worship).
II-16. The conviction, which is present from the words of the Guru that there is only one (reality) without a second, alone is the solitude (necessary for meditation) and not a monastery nor the interior of a forest.
II-17. There is liberation for those who are free from doubts; there is no emancipation even at the end of repeated births for those whose minds are invaded by doubts (about the non-duality of the Atman). Hence one should have faith.
II-18. There is no (true) renunciation by discarding action, nor by reciting the mantras of Praisa (at the formal ceremony of renunciation). Renunciation has been declared to be the oneness of the individual self (Jiva) and the universal Self (Atman).
II-19. One, to whom all primary desires, etc., (such as for wife, wealth and progeny) appear like vomit and who has discarded pride in his body, is entitled to renunciation.
II-20. A wise man should embrace renunciation only when there has risen in his mind dispassion for all worldly things; otherwise he is fallen.
II-21. He who renounces worldly life for amassing wealth (contributed by rich disciples) or for the sake of (assured) boarding and clothing or for a stable position (as the head of a monastery) is doubly fallen (i.e. he has neither the full pleasures of worldly life nor liberation); he does not deserve final beatitude.
II-22. The wisest take to contemplation on the reality (of Brahman); the middling ones contemplate on the scripture; low people think of the mantras; the lowest are deluded by (the efficacy) of holy places.
II-23. A fool in vain takes (theoretical) delight in Brahman without practically experiencing it (as I am Brahman), like the joy of tasting fruits found in the branch of a tree reflected (in a lake).
II-24. If a sage does not give up – the inward (conviction of non-duality in) the collecting of alms from various houses as a bee does honey from flowers, the father in the form of dispassion, the wife of faith and the son of true knowledge, he is liberated.
II-25. People rich in wealth, old in age and similarly those mature in knowledge – all these are (but) servants, (nay) the servants of the disciples of those who are mature in wisdom.
II-26. Even learned people have their minds deluded by the illusion created by me and without realizing me, the Atman, who am omnipresent, they but wander like cows to fill the wretched belly !
II-27. To one desiring liberation worship of idols made of stone, metal, gem and clay results only in the experience of rebirth; hence the sage should perform the worship of his heart alone (i.e. contemplate on Brahman enshrined in his heart, non-different from the Self). To prevent rebirth he shall avoid external worship (of idols).
II-28. He who is full inwardly and outwardly is like a jar filled in the sea; he who is empty inwardly and empty outwardly is like a jar empty in the sky.
II-29. Do not become one enjoying objects (of the senses), do not also become one believing in the senses. Rejecting all ideations, become that which remains.
II-30. Discarding (ideas of) seer, seeing and what is seen along with inward tendencies, may you resort only to the Atman who is the prime source of all phenomena.
II-31. That state of remaining like a stone with all ideations quiescent and freed from the states of waking and sleeping is the supreme state of the Self (in the disembodied state).
Thus (ends the instruction given by Lord Shiva and the second chapter).
III-1. I am I, I am the other (the supreme one), I am Brahman, I am the source (of all), I am also the Guru of all the worlds, I am all the worlds, That I am.
III-2. I alone am, I have attained perfection, I am pure, I am the supreme, I remain always, I am He, I am eternal, I am pure.
III-3. I am the true knowledge (Vijnana), I am the special one, I am Soma, I am the all. I am the auspicious one, I am free from sorrow, I am consciousness, I am the impartial one.
III-4. I am devoid of honour and dishonour, I am without attributes, I am Shiva, I am free from duality and non-duality, I am free from the pairs (of opposites), I am He.
III-5. I am devoid of being and non-being, I am beyond speech, I am effulgence, I am the power of the void and the non-void and I am the auspicious and the inauspicious (i.e. beyond both of them).
III-6. I am devoid of the equal and the unequal, eternal, pure, ever auspicious; I am free of all and the non-all, I am the righteous and I ever remain.
III-7. I am beyond the number one and I am beyond the number two as well. I am above the distinction of good and bad and I am devoid of ideation.
III-8. I am free from the distinction of many souls, being of the form of unalloyed bliss. I am not (existent as an entity), I am not another, I am devoid of the body etc.,
III-9. I am free from the concept of substratum and that of the object resting on it; I am devoid of a prop. I am above captivity and liberation, I am the pure Brahman, I am He.
III-10. I am devoid of all things such as the mind, I am the supreme, greater than the great. I am always of the form of investigation, I am free from investigation. I am He.
III-11. I am of the form of the letter ‘a’ and ‘u’ and I am the letter ‘m’ which (as Om) is eternal. I am free from meditation and being a meditator, I am beyond the object of meditation, I am He.
III-12. I am of the form which fills everything, possessing the characteristics of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss. I am of the form of all holy places, I am the supreme Atman, I am Shiva.
III-13. I am devoid of aim and non-aim and I am the bliss 9rasa0 which has no extinction. I am beyond measurer and measure and the thing measured; I am Shiva.
III-14. I am not the world, I witness all and I am devoid of eyes, etc., I am immense, I am awake, I am serene and I am Hara (Shiva).
III-15. I am devoid of all the senses and I do all actions. I am the (object of) satisfaction to all the Upanishads, I am always easily accessible (to the devoted).
III-16. I am joy (to the devoted) and sorrow (to the careless), I am the friend of all silence. I am always of the form of consciousness and I am always of the form of Existence and Consciousness.
III-17. I am not devoid of even the least, nor am I a little. I am without the knot of the heart (i.e. partiality due to affection) and I abode in the midst of the lotus of the heart.
III-18. I am devoid of the six changes (of birth, etc.,), I am without the six sheaths (the gross material body, etc.,); I am free from the group of six (internal) enemies (passions, etc.,) and I am the witness, being the supreme God.
III-19. I am free of space and time, I am the bliss of the principal unclad sages, I am beyond ‘there is’ and ‘there is not’ and I am devoid of all negation (i.e. I am pure Existence without a counterpart).
III-20. I am of the form of unbroken ether and I am of omnipresent form. I am the mind (chitta) free from the phenomenal world and I am devoid of the phenomenal world.
III-21. I am of the form of all effulgence, I am the effulgence of pure consciousness. I am beyond the three durations (past, present and future) and I am free from passion, etc.
III-22. I am above the body and its dweller and I am unique, devoid of attributes. I am beyond liberation, I am liberated and I am always devoid of final emancipation.
III-23. I am above truth and untruth, I am always nothing other than pure Existence. I am not obliged to go to any place, being free of movement, etc.
III-24. I am always equanimous, I am quiescence, the greatest being (Purushottama); one who has his own experience thus is without doubt myself. He who listens to this (experience) even once (with supreme faith) becomes himself (i.e. becomes merged into) Brahman. Thus (ends) the Upanishad.
Om ! Let my limbs and speech, Prana, eyes, ears, vitality
And all the senses grow in strength.
All existence is the Brahman of the Upanishads.
May I never deny Brahman, nor Brahman deny me.
Let there be no denial at all:
Let there be no denial at least from me.
May the virtues that are proclaimed in the Upanishads be in me,
Who am devoted to the Atman; may they reside in me.
Om ! Let there be Peace in me !
Let there be Peace in my environment !
Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !
Here ends the Maitreyopanishad, included in the Sama-Veda.
