"Sanaka and other Manas-born sons of Brahma asked their father as
follows: -- The mind enters the Gunas (objects _i.e._ the mind naturally
becomes attached to objects) and the Gunas (_i.e._ the objects when
experienced) enter the mind (as desires). How can those that want to
cross over (the objects) and to become liberated cause a separation
between the two?
"Brahma could not gauge the question in his own mind. So he meditated on
me. I appeared before him as a Hansa. (The Swan can discriminate between
milk and water. So the bird symbolises a discriminating sage.) The
Brahmanas and Brahma asked: 'Who art thou?' I said as follows: --
"O Brahmanas does your question relate to Atma -- If so, Atma is not
many. So the question does not arise. And who will reply to whom?
"If your question relates to the body, then also the elements composing
the body being the same in all beings, and Atma being the same in all,
your question is meaningless.
"Whatever is perceived by the senses and the mind, I am that -- There is
nothing besides Me. Rightly know this to be so.
"True the mind enters the Gunas and the Gunas enter the mind. The Gunas
and mind thus mutually blended are but the body of the Jiva, its reality
being My own self. (If mind wedded to objects, be the essence of Jiva,
then their separation is not possible. But the essence of Jiva is
Brahma. Mind is only attributed to Jiva. And Jiva's connection with the
objects is through the properties of the mind. Therefore Jiva by
realising that it is Brahma will find out that the objects have no
existence as far as its own self is concerned. Therefore by devotion to
Bhagavat, Jiva completely rests in its own self. _Sridhara_. This is not
a separation of Manas and objects, but the withdrawal of self from
both.)
"By constant pursuit of the Gunas, the mind enters the Gunas. The Gunas
also (being turned into desires) take a firm hold of the mind. Knowing
Me to be thy own self give up both (the objects and the mind wedded to
them.)
"Wakefulness (Jagrat), Dream (Svapna) and Dreamless sleep (Sushupti) are
states of mind, caused by the Gunas, Jiva is beyond all these states.
For it is the witness of all these states. The bondage caused by mind
imparts the actions of the Gunas to Atma. Therefore being fixed in Me,
the Fourth (_i.e._ beyond the three states of consciousness), get over
the bondage of mind. That will be the (mutual) giving up of the mind and
the Gunas. This bondage of Atma is caused by Ahankara (the sense of
'I-ness') Know this to be the cause of all evils. Knowing this, be fixed
in the Fourth, and give up all thoughts of _Sansara_ (_i.e._ of mind and
of the connections caused by mind.)
"So long as the idea of manifoldness is not destroyed by reasoning, man
dreams in ignorance even in the wakeful state, just as in dream, the
ignorant man thinks he is wakeful.
"All things, other than Atma are unreal. The differences made amongst
them (such as, this is Brahmana, this is Sudra, this is Grihastha, this
is Sanyasin), the different destinations (Svarga and other Karmic
fruits) and even Karma (action) itself are unreal, so far as Atma is
concerned.
"He who throughout the constantly following stages of life (childhood,
youth, age etc.) perceives the objects in the wakeful state, with the
help of all the senses, he who perceives the likes of those objects in
dream in the heart, and he who brings those perceptions to an end in
dreamless sleep are all one and the same. For the same memory runs
through all these states. The Lord of the senses is one and the same.
(The outward senses perceive the wakeful state. Mind, perceives the
dream. Buddhi perceives dreamless sleep. Atma, is the Lord of all these
senses).
"Ponder well over this that the three states of mind are caused in Me by
the Gunas, through My Maya. Knowing this definitely, cut asunder the
source of all doubts (Ahankara) by the sword of wisdom sharpened by
reasoning, the teachings of Sadhus, and the Srutis. And worship Me, that
dwell in the heart.
"Look upon this Universe as a delusion, a play of the mind. Now seen,
now destroyed. So rapid is the succession, that it is like a whirling
fire brand that looks circular (on account of the rapid motion, though
it is not circular). One consciousness appears as many. The phenomenal
existence (_Vikalpa_) caused by the threefold Guna transformations is
but Maya, a dream.
"Turn away your sight from this object world. Give up all desires. Be
calm and find bliss in the perception of self. At times you will have
experience of the objects in your daily life (for getting the
necessaries of life). But what you have once thrown aside as unreal
shall not be able to cause delusion in you. Till the fall of your body,
the objects will haunt you like things of the past, stored as it were in
memory alone. This frail body, through which he has known his real self,
may rise or sit, may move away from its place or come back, just as
chance will have it, but the Siddha sees it not, even as an inebriate
person does not see the cloth he puts on.
"The body waits with the Pranas and Indriyas till the _Commenced_ Karma
exhausts itself. But being fixed in Samadhi, the knower of the truth
does not care for the body and the object world, which are all visionary
to him.
"I said all this to the Brahmanas and came back to my own abode."