"Verses-143 to 153."

 

 

 

 

 

The powers – agitation and veiling (verses 143-144)
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143. Just as, on a cloudy day, when the sun is completely hidden by dense clouds, cold, shivering blasts afflict a peson, so too, when the Self is concealed by utter ignorance, the dreadful projecting power (vikshepa sakti) afflicts the foolish person with endless sorrows.

 

144. A person‘s bondage proceeds from these two ―powers.‖ Deluded by them, one mistakes the body for the Self and wanders from life to life.

 

Bondage in action (verses 145-146)
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145. Ignorance is the seed of the tree of samsara, the worldy existence. Body-identification is the sprout, desires are its tender leaves, actions are its water, the body is the trunk, the Pranas are its branches, the sense-organs are its twigs, the sense-objects are its flowers, different miseries born out of the varieties of actions are the fruits and the individual soul is the bird perched upon it.

 

146. This bondage caused by the non-Self springs from ignorance and is self-caused. It is described as without beginning and without end. It subjects one to the endless flood of miseries—birth, death, disease, and old age.

 

Atma and anatma – discrimination (verses 147-153)
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147. Neither by weapons, nor by wind, nor by fire, nor by millions of actions can this bondage be destroyed. By nothing save the wonder-sword of Knowledge which comes from discrimination given by the grace of the Lord, can we end this bondage.

 

148. One who has deep devotion to the Scriptures and is firmly established in one‘s own duties (swadharma)—for these actions alone contribute to the purity of his mind—and is of pure mind realizes the supreme Self. By this knowledge alone is samsara destroyed, root and branch.

 

149. Covered by the five sheaths, such as the food-sheath, which are produced by Its own Divine Power, the Self does not shine clearly, just as the water in a tank covered by the collection of moss, which is born out of itself (water).

 

150. When the moss is removed, absolutely pure water, which can quench the pangs of thirst and give immediate joy, becomes visible.

 

151. When all five sheaths have been negated, the Self shines supremely as being the essence of everlasting Bliss, as the indwelling, Self-effulgent Spirit Supreme.

 

152.The wise should discriminate between the Self and the not-Self for the bondage. Only then does one know the Self to be Absolute Existence-Knowledge-Bliss, only then, does one become happy.

 

153. The person who separates all sense-objects, perceived, felt and thought of, from the subjective, unattached, actionless Self—likethe enveloping sheaths separated from the tender core of the munja grass— is free, for having merged everything with the Self, that person remains ever established in It.