Disciples inquire within themselves:
What is the cause of this universe?--is it Brahman?  Whence do we come? By what do we live?  Where shall we at last find rest?  Under whose command are we bound by the law of happiness and its opposite? Time, space, law, chance, matter, primal energy, intelligence--none of these, nor a combination of these, can be the final cause of the universe, for they are effects, and exist to serve the atman, the individual self, nor can the atman, the individual self,  be the cause, for, being subject to the law of happiness and misery, it is not free.

 The seers, absorbed in contemplation, saw within themselves the ultimate reality, the self-luminous being, the One Self, who dwells as the self-conscious power in all creatures.  IT is the One without a second.  Deep within all beings IT dwells, hidden from sight by the coverings of the gunas --sattwa, rajas, and tamas.  IT presides over time, space, and all apparent causes.

 This vast universe is a wheel.  Upon it are all creatures that are subject to birth, death, and rebirth.  Round and round it turns, and never stops.  It is the wheel of Brahman.  As long as the individual self thinks it is separate from Brahman, it revolves upon the wheel in bondage to the laws of birth, death, and rebirth.  But when it realizes its identity with Brahman, it revolves upon the wheel no longer.  It achieves immortality.'

 The One who is realized by transcending the world of cause and effect, in deep contemplation, is expressly declared by the scriptures to be the Supreme Brahman.  IT (Brahman) is the substance, all else the shadow.  IT is the imperishable.  The knowers of Brahman know IT as the one reality behind all that seems.  For this reason they are devoted to IT.  Absorbed in IT, they attain freedom from the wheel of birth, death, and rebirth.

 The Self supports this universe, which is made up of the perishable and the imperishable, the manifest and the unmanifest.  The individual self, forgetful of Brahman, attaches itself to pleasure and thus is bound.  When it comes to Brahman, it is freed from all its fetters.

 Mind and matter, master and servant--both have existed from beginningless time.  The Maya which unites them has also existed from beginningless time.  When all three--mind, matter, and Maya-are known as one with Brahman, then is it realized that the Self is infinite and has no part in action.  Then is it revealed that the Self is all.

 Matter is perishable.  The Self, the destroyer of ignorance, is imperishable, immortal.  Such is IT, the Self, the Lord of the perishable and of all selves.  By meditating on IT, by uniting oneself with IT, by identifying oneself with IT, one ceases to be ignorant.

 Know the Self, and all fetters will be loosed.  Ignorance will vanish.  Birth, death, and rebirth will be no more.  Meditate upon IT and transcend physical consciousness.  Thus will you reach union with the Self  of the universe.  Thus will you become identified with the One who is without a second.  In IT all your desires will find fulfillment.

 The truth is that you are always united with the Self.  But you must know this.  Nothing further is there to know.  Meditate, and you will realize that mind, matter, and Maya (the power which unites mind and matter) are but three aspects of Brahman, the one reality.

 Fire, though present in the firesticks, is not perceived until one stick is rubbed against another.  The Self is like that fire: it is realized in the body by meditation on the sacred syllable OM.

 Let your body be the stick that is rubbed, the sacred Syllable OM the stick that is rubbed against it.  Thus shall you realize the Self, who is hidden within the body as fire is hidden within the wood. Like oil in sesame seed, butter in cream, water in the river bed, fire in tinder, the Self dwells within the soul.  Realize IT through truthfulness and meditation.

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