With deep awareness, the living being perceives taste, sound, and meaning, experiencing them momentarily in the subtle region associated with the tongue of feeling. From this awareness, an inclination toward the meaning of sound arises, and illumination dawns in the region named after the future eye. Then, with this same awareness, the function of the nose is perceived; wherever the being is established, the states of sight and other senses remain there. In this way, the embodied soul, much like the fleeting encounter of a crow and a palm tree, gradually perceives the unique arrangements arising within itself. Through hearing, it recognizes the partial presence of sound within these arrangements, whether real or unreal, existent or non-existent. Likewise, it perceives the partial presence of touch through the meaning of skin and sound, and the partial presence of taste through the form of the tongue's object. The form is perceived through the shape of the eye's object, and the partial presence of smell is discerned through the nature of the nose. Thus, this state, composed of such qualities, becomes capable of manifestation; the being perceives that opening in the body known as the future sense organ. In this manner, O Raghava, for both the primal living being and the present one, the apparent self—the transmigrating principle—arises only within the body. The supreme existence, indescribable in essence, seems to take on the role of transmigration, yet, though it appears to journey, it does not truly go anywhere—such is the power of self-imagination. When, through direct knowledge, one realizes that the knower, the known, and the means of knowledge are all but Brahman, then statements about transmigration lose all relevance; that alone is the reality. Transmigration is perceived as other than Brahman only due to the sense of otherness, but when Brahman alone is known, there is only Brahman—no other awareness exists. If no awareness apart from Brahman is possible, what need is there for liberation or inquiry? Enough of these distinctions and divisions. O Rama, your question shines forth only at the time of conclusion; for a garland of flowers out of season, though beautiful, does not truly shine. Just as a garland made at the wrong time, even if adorned, does not suit the occasion, so too, words spoken out of season by a living being—everything is fitting only in its proper time. It is seen that time grants both obstacles and permissions; indeed, for all things, their fruition is determined by time. Thus, the individual self, present as the sleeper, perceives within itself, through the passage of time, the state of being a progenitor, now ended. He who, preceded by the awareness of the utterance of Om, beholds the Vedas and rules in the kingdom of his mind, quickly becomes established in that understanding. Knowing this unreal as if it were real, in the space of the pure self, the world, shaped like a mass of mountains, unfolds in space. Here, nothing is born and nothing perishes; the world, like a city of the Gandharvas, is expanded in Brahman. Just as the existence of Brahma and other living beings is composed of both reality and unreality, so too is the existence of all, whether serpentine or demonic. This is only the confusion of consciousness; even when it arises thus, it is unreal. From Brahma down to the worm, when true knowledge ceases, so does awareness. Just as Brahma comes into being, so does the worm; but the worm, due to the dominance of gross elements and the insignificance of actions, is limited. Whatever life is in a living being, consisting of the inclination towards objects, that alone is manliness in him, that alone is the essence, and that alone is action. From the creation of Brahma down to the destruction of an insect, when the illusion that is mind-only ceases, only pure perception remains. When the objects of knower, means of knowledge, and the known do not exist apart from pure consciousness, then doctrines of duality and unity are as unreal as a hare’s horn or a lotus in the sky. The cosmic egg of Brahma, which is of the nature of firm existence, is imagined falsely; just as the self, by the action of a silkworm, appears in the form of its own saliva. Whatever is seen by Brahma as real appears in that very way; this is the certain understanding of those who know reality regarding the nature of things. Whatever thing arises, it cannot exist even for a moment or an age without its own nature; this is the certain understanding of the nature of things. That which has arisen is unreal, and the unreal alone increases; it experiences only the unreal, and thus the unreal dissolves. Within pure consciousness is creation; pure consciousness is within all; in truth, all beings are pure consciousness, or rather, everything is pure consciousness. Pure consciousness alone is inside, outside, above, below, as the knower, the means, and the known; thus it assumes the position of the knower. Ever peaceful, by this, all existence abides always as one, perfectly balanced, beyond the fourth state. Here, they recount an ancient tale, the great web of questions spoken by a demoness, vast and all-encompassing. There dwells, fierce as the Sālabhañjikā of the sooty mountain, a demoness named Karkaṭī on the northern side of the Himalayas. She, also called Viṣūcikā, is a maiden afflicted by justice, her body emaciated like the Vindhya forest by reasoning. Her eyes blaze like great fires, nostrils filled with smoke, clad in dark blue garments—black as night bound in a body. Shrouded in mist-like robes, with a headcloth as dense as a cloud, her breasts hang like rain-clouds, ever bearing the banner of darkness. Her eyes are steady as lightning streaks, stars among tamāla trees; her nails tipped like the edge of a cat's-eye gem, she laughs with a garland of ashes. Adorned with garlands of flowers made from heaps of fleshless human bodies, she shines with a necklace of corpses strung with fierce entrails on every limb. Her earrings are dreadful skulls, agitated by the possession of spirits; her mighty arms blaze like thunderclouds seized by the sun.