Chapter Four


1.
Nothing can be added or taken away from the Universal Consciousness.  It cannot be invoked or worshipped with flowers and leaves.  Meditations and Mantrams cannot reach It.  How could It be worshipped as Shiva, for in It there are neither distinctions nor unity?

2.
In the One there is neither bondage nor salvation, neither purity nor impurity.  From union and separation, the One is free.  That space-like Truth am I.

3.
As in reality I am Nirvana, thoughts as to the reality and unreality of the world trouble me not at all.

4.
Eternally free from the taint of ignorance as I am, knowledge or illusion never had birth in me.  How can I say whether I am bound or free?

5.
Neither sin nor virtue ever existed in me; by nature I am Nirvana.  Neither the worshiper nor the worshipped am I.  No instructions and no rituals are there for me.  Knowledge also am I not.  By nature I am Nirvana.

6.
Taintless Nirvana am I; I am neither the comprehender nor the comprehended.  Neither the cause nor the effect exist in me.

7.
Neither am I a body, nor am I bodiless.  The buddhi [higher mind which includes the discriminative faculty and intuitive reason], the mind and the senses are not mine.  How can I talk of attachment and detachment, since I am taintless Nirvana?

8.
In me exist not birth, death, purity, impurity, poison, or the water of immortality.  Verily, I am free even from the taint of Nirvana.  I cannot speak of the "Third" or the "Fourth".

9.
Neither a fool nor a pundit am I; neither silent nor of many words.  How can I speak of reasoning or argument since I am free even from the taint of Nirvana?

10.
Giving up all meditations, all good and evil karma, drinking the water of immortality, the heroes know that I, from the taint of Nirvana, am free.

11.
No ritualist injunction is binding on me.  Mind, the seat of anxieties, does not exist in me.  Far, far from me also is egotism.  Space-like, immortality-giving, knowledge absolute, am I.

12.
I cannot say whether the world is nothingness, or if it is partly real and partly unreal, or, if like a flowing river though ever changing, it is in fact real as a whole.  Space-like, immortality-giving, knowledge absolute, am I.

13.
There is not the least shadow of name or form in the Infinite, nor is there unity or diversity in me.  O my shameless mind, why createst thou a confusion?  Space-like, immortality-giving, knowledge absolute, am I.

14.
O my friend, there is no cause for disquietude since thou art not the body.  Thou art imperishable and eternal; then why criest thou?  Rest in peace.  Space-like, immortality-giving, knowledge absolute, am I.

15.
Why art thou troubled, O friend, since avarice, lust, attachment, are not in thee?  Space-like, immortality-giving, knowledge absolute, am I.

16.
Why this craving for power, O companion, when in truth, wealth is not thine.  "Mine" and "thine" are not in thee.

17.
In thy heart there is no meditator, there is no Samadhi, nor is there any possibility of meditation in Atman.  Time and causation never existed in thee.

18.
I have told thee, o disciple, the essence of Truth.  There is no "thou" nor "I", no world, no Guru, or disciple.  Know that by nature I am freedom absolute.  I am transcendental Truth.

19.
When Atman, the absolute existence, alone is, and It is I, then where is transcendental Truth, where is bliss, where is knowledge, secular or spiritual?

20.
Unknown to fire, water and earth; motionless, all-pervasive as space, knowledge absolute, know thy Atman to be.

21.
Renounce, renounce the world, and also renounce renunciation, and even give up the absence of renunciation.  By nature, all-pervasive as space, knowledge absolute, art thou.