1. After hearing what has been said, the listeners asked, "How is it that the "Knowledge of Brahman" is not a thing, yet it still exists? How can this be possible?
2. How can Brahman be doing everything while not being the doer, how can Brahman be enjoying everything while not being the enjoyer, and how can Brahman be detached while being in the midst of all?
3. You say that the yogi who is one with Brahman is not the enjoyer or sufferer even while enjoying or suffering. Does this also mean that such a one does not enjoy heaven or suffer in hell?
4. It is clear that everyone feels the suffering associated with birth and death, but you say that the yogi is not a sufferer. Doesn't he experience the many pains in life?
5. Does a great yogi not get a beating even though he is beaten, is he not crying even though he cries, and does he not moan while making strenuous efforts?
6. Has he no birth even though he has been born, has he not fallen even though he has committed wrongful deeds, and is he above pain and sufferings even though he experiences them in many ways?"
7. Like this is the conjecture put forth by the listeners who have taken up a wrong line of thinking, so now a satisfactory answer must be given to these questions.
8. The speaker asks the listeners to remain attentive. You speak of good things, but what you have said is only based your own experience of what happens to you.
9. Everyone speaks according to one’s experience, but if one speaks courageously without the wealth of Knowledge (Jnana), that speech is meaningless.
10. Without the wealth of Knowledge, there is the calamity of poverty in the form of ignorance, and one suffers from the limitations of the knowledge which is limited to words.
11. A great yogi is recognized by another yogi, a great Jnani is recognized by another Jnani, and one who is very clever is recognized by one who is also clever.
12. The one who is experienced knows one who is experienced, one who is detached feels a sense of common contentment when meeting with another who is detached, and one who has given up the body misidentification recognizes one who is without the body-consciousness.
13. It goes without saying that the one who thinks that an "accomplished one," a Siddha, is the same as one who is in bondage, and the one who is in bondage is the same as a Siddha, is a fool.
14. The one who is possessed by some ghost or spirit and the one who is an exorcist both have a body, but how can they both be considered as equal?
15. Similarly, how can it be correct that one who is ignorant and self absorbed should be considered the same as one who is knowledgeable and liberated?
16. Let this be enough of these similes. Now I shall speak with the purpose that the listeners may gain some experience. The listeners are asked to remain attentive for a moment while listening.
17. One who is "Knowledgeable," a Jnani, is one who is dissolved, and who has seen with the power of discrimination that a separate individual does not exist. Being one with the Self, he has not remained as anything at all.
18. How does one find That? Having found it, one becomes That itself. Having become That, it is not necessary to say anything.
19. If one is looking only in the body it cannot be seen there, if one is searching only in the elements, it does not appear there. However, being only One, Brahman cannot be separated out from anything.
20. The Jnani appears to be having a bodily appearance but does not have any feeling of being within a body. How can one understand his inner experience when only looking at him superficially?
21. To know him, one must search within, and he is found to be existing there eternally. Upon finding That, one's disturbed state of mind falls away and one becomes changeless, without any attributes.
22. That alone is the Supreme Self, Paramatman. In it, there is no impurity of Illusion. Undivided, it is never affected by desires or hopes.
23. One such as this is the "King of Yogis" who is effortlessly and spontaneously always the Self, the completeness of Brahman, the origin of the Vedas. This cannot be understood by one who takes oneself to be the bodily form.
24. Looking only at his body, he appears to be the body, but his inner experience is totally different. Finding That, one becomes free of the cycle of birth and death.
25. Who is there to have any birth and death? That is not its nature at all. How can that which does not exist be brought in from anywhere?
26. If the attributeless is imagined to have taken birth or to be subject to death, these notions of birth and death are only one's own imagination.
27. This is similar to how if one spits at the sun at high noon, the spit only falls back on oneself, or if one inwardly has ill wishes for another, those negative effects are felt for oneself.
28. When coming to know the greatness of a Self-realized person, one feels contentment. And even if a dog begins to bark at him very loudly, his greatness is not diminished, while the dog continues to remain only a dog.
29. The Jnani is the True Form of the Self, but the ignorant one looks at him only as being the form of a human being. Accordingly, as one’s feelings are towards God, God is reflected back in the same way.
30. God is formless and attributeless, yet people worship stone idols. Stones break, but how can That which is attributeless ever break?
31. God is always pervading everywhere. People think of him as being many, but it cannot happen that God can actually become many.
32. Similarly, the Jnani is full with Self-Knowledge, and completely content in that Knowledge. Through the power of discrimination he has surrendered in the Self, and is actually the True Form of the Self.
33. When fire burns wood, the fire appears to take on the shape of the wood, but we can never say that the fire has become the wood.
34. By analogy, camphor can be seen when it is burning, just as the body of the Jnani is seen, however, once the camphor has been burnt, it cannot be put back into the plant from which it originated. (Once the Jnani leaves behind bodily identification he does not return to identifying with the body again.)
35. A seed that has been burned will not sprout, a piece of fabric that has been burned cannot be properly spread out, and a stream that has merged with the Ganges cannot be separated out again.
36. A separate river can be seen prior to its merging into the Ganges, but afterwards it cannot be seen separately. The Jnani is not the body that has an appearance, but is the Self which pervades everything.
37. Just as gold is not iron, the birth of a Jnani has never occurred. However, this is not understood by the ignorant being who is dull and foolish.
38. Just because a blind person cannot see anything does not mean that all other people are blind.
39. One who is dreaming and is terrified by events in the dream screams aloud with the fear caused by the dream. How can one who is awake be affected by the fear caused by the dream?
40. When a root that is shaped like a snake is seen by two people, one person gets scared and the other recognizes it as a root. How can it be said that the states of both people are the same?
41. Even when holding it in his hand, it does not bite him, but because of his imagination it does not appear to be a root and he is still affected by his fear of it.
42. Even when a scorpion or snake bites someone, only that person is affected. How can other people be affected with that pain?
43. Now the conjecture has been cleared away. Those who are knowledgeable understand this Knowledge. For the ignorant, the cycle of birth and death cannot be avoided.
44. People undertake many efforts in order to know the one Self. Because of not knowing it they bear the sufferings of birth and death.
45. The continuation of this explanation will be given in the next sub-chapter, so the speaker says, "Remain alert and attentive!"