1. Of the teacher—even if he be young illiterate, or addicted to the enjoyment of sense objects, even if he be a servant or a householder—none of these should be considered. Does anyone shun a gem that has fallen in an impure place?
2. In such a case one should not consider even the quality of scholarship. A worldly person should recognize only the essence. Does not a boat. though devoid of beauty and vermilion paint nevertheless ferry passengers?
3. The unmoving One, who without effort possesses all that is movable and immovable, is consciousness, naturally calm, like the sky.
4. How can He, the One and All-pervading, who moves effortlessly all that is movable and immovable, be differentiated! To me He is nondual.
5. I am verily supreme since I am the Absolute, more essential than all essences, since I am free from birth and death, calm and undifferentiated.
6. Thus I, free from all components, am worshipped by the gods, but being full and perfect, I do not recognize any distinctions such as gods and the like.
7. Ignorance does not create any doubt. What shall I do, being endowed with modifications of the mind? They arise and dissolve like bubbles in water.
8. Thus am I ever pervading all existence beginning with cosmic intelligence—pervading soft, hard, sweet, and pungent substances.
9. As pungency, coldness, or softness is nondifferent from water, so prakrti is nondifferent from purusa—thus it appears to me.
10. The Lord of the universe is devoid of all names. He is subtler than the subtlest, supreme, He is spotless, beyond the senses, mind, and intellect.
11. Where there is such a natural Being, how can there be "I", how can there be even "you", how can there be the world?
12. That which has been described as being like ether is indeed Like ether. That is Consciousness—blameless, omniscient, and perfect.
13. It does not move about on the earth or dwell in fire. It is not blown by the wind or covered by water.
14. Space is pervaded by It, but It is not pervaded by anything. It is existing within and without. It is undivided and continuous.
15. One should successively take recourse to the objects of concentration, as mentioned by the yogis, in accordance with their subtlety, invisibility, and attributelessness.
16. When through constant practice one's concentration becomes objectless, then, being divested of merits and demerits, one attains the state of complete dissolution in the Absolute through the dissolution of the object of concentration, but not before then.
17. For the destruction of the terrible poisonous universe, which produces the unconsciousness of delusion, there is but one infallible remedy—the nectar of naturalness.
18. That which has form is visible to the eye, while the formless is perceived mentally. That (the Self), being beyond existence and nonexistence, is called intermediate.
19. The external existence is the universe, the inner existence is called prakrti. One should try to know That which is more interior than the inner existence, That which is like water within the kernel of the coconut.
20. Illusory knowledge relates to what is outside, correct knowledge to what is inside. Try to know That which is more interior than the inside, That which is like water within the kernel of the coconut.
21. There is only one very clear moon on the full moon night. One should perceive That (the Self) like the moon seeing duality is perversion.
22. It is indeed in this way that intelligence becomes divided and ceases to be all-comprehending. A giver attains to wisdom and is sung with millions of names.
23. Whoever, whether he be ignorant or learned, attains to the full awareness of Truth through the grace of a teacher's wisdom, becomes detached from the ocean of worldliness.
24. He who free from attachment and hatred, devoted to the good of all beings, fixed in knowledge and steady attain to the supreme state.
25. As the space within a pot dissolves in the universal space when the pot is broken, so a yogi, in the absence of the body, dissolves into the supreme Self, which is his true being.
26. It has been said that the destiny of those devoted to action is the same as their thought at the end, but it has not been said that the destiny of those established in yoga is the same as their thought at the end.
27. One may express the destiny of those devoted to action with the organ of speech, but the destiny of the yogis can never be expressed, because it is transcendental.
28. Knowing this, one never says that the yogis have any particular path. For them it is the giving up of all duality, The supreme attainment comes of itself.
29. The yogi, having died anywhere, in a holy place or in the house of an untouchable, does not see the mother's womb again—he is dissolved in the supreme Brahman.
30. He who has seen his true Self, which is innate, unborn, and incomprehensible, does not, if anything desired happens to him, become tainted. Being free from taint, he never performs any action. The man of self-restraint or the ascetic, therefore, is never bound.
31. He attains to the supreme Self, who is eternal, pure, fearless, formless, and supportless, who is without body, without desire, beyond the pairs of opposites, free from illusion and of undiminished power.
32. He attains to the supreme, eternal Self, in whom exists no Veda, no initiation, no tonsure, no teacher, no disciple, no perfection of symbolic figures, no hand-posture or anything else.
33. He attains to the supreme, eternal Self, in whom is neither sambhavi, nor sakti, nor anavi initiation; neither a sphere, nor an image, nor a foot, nor anything else; neither beginning, nor ending, nor a jar, etc.
34. He attains to the supreme, eternal Self, from whose essence the universe of movable and immovable objects is born, in whom it rests, and into whom it dissolves, even as foam and bubbles are born of the transformation of water.
35. He attains to the supreme, eternal Self, in whom is no closing of nostril nor gazing nor posture, and in whom is neither knowledge nor ignorance nor any nerve-current.
36. He attains to the supreme, eternal Self, who is devoid of manifoldness, oneness, many-and-oneness, and otherness; who is devoid of minuteness, length, largeness, and nothingness; who is devoid of knowledge, knowableness, and sameness.
37. He attains the supreme, eternal Self whether he has perfect self-control or not, whether he has withdrawn his senses well or not, whether he has gone beyond activity or is active.
38. He attains the supreme, eternal Self who is not mind, intelligence, body, senses, or egoism; who is neither the subtle elements nor the five gross elements nor of the nature of space.
39. When injunctions cease and the yogi attains to the supreme Self, his mind being void of differentiations, he has neither purity nor impurity; his contemplation is without distinguishing attributes; and even what is usually prohibited is permissible to him.
40. Where mind and speech can utter nothing, how can there be instruction by a teacher? To the teacher—ever united with Brahman—who has said these words, the homogeneous Truth shines out.