O Raghava, do not let yourself be ensnared by the logic that mistakes a rope for a snake—do not be bound by such illusions. Instead, let your reasoning be like that which recognizes a dry stick, which may appear terrible but is, in truth, harmless. Remain ever sinless and clear in your discernment. This path of worldly existence, with its uninterrupted mixture of pleasure and pain, arises solely from the imagination of the world. Even for one who moves and acts among beings, this path of suffering and enjoyment perishes constantly through the power of non-attachment. Victorious always are those heroes and the virtuous, who have conquered their own minds—minds intoxicated and agitated by ignorance and pride, ever drawn toward objects of desire. For this worldly existence, which brings every kind of suffering and affliction, there is but one means of escape: the restraint of one’s own mind. Now hear the very essence of all dharma, and hold it firm in your heart: bondage is nothing but the desire for enjoyment; liberation is the abandonment of that desire. What need is there for endless scriptural debates? Listen to this alone: whatever appears delightful to you, regard it as you would poison or fire. Sense objects are enjoyments like poison; they must be examined again and again, for they are undesirable and should be abandoned. When indulged in, they bring only suffering. A mind colored by latent impressions gives rise to many faults, just as soil sown with thorn seeds brings forth a thicket of thorns. But when the mind is free of the seed of attachment and the restless flow of thoughts, when it is untouched by passion or aversion, it gradually attains the highest tranquility. The intellect filled with virtuous tendencies always produces excellent qualities that ripen in time, just as fertile soil yields the best crops. Through the contemplation of auspicious thoughts, the mind becomes clear and steady, and the dense cloud of false knowledge is gradually and gently dissolved. As goodness increases, like the waxing moon in the bright fortnight, discernment and virtue expand, and the world shines with the radiance of the sun. When steadfastness grows within, liberation arises like the wind blowing through bamboo; when inner stability is established, delight appears like moonlight in the night. When the tree of good company bears fruit and casts its cool shade, the nectar of bliss flows from the straight tree of samadhi. The mind then becomes free from duality, desireless, undisturbed, and rid of the restlessness, greed, delusion, and fear that are the roots of suffering. All doubts about the meaning of scriptures are exhausted, curiosity is stilled, the web of imagination is dispelled, and one lives liberated, untouched by the world. Such a one is free from desire, anger, expectation, and anxiety. The mist of sorrow is fully calmed; unattached and unbound by doctrines, he stands free. Having destroyed his own mind—which is the charioteer of the fierce horses of the senses and the cage of craving and attachments—one attains the supreme purpose: sovereignty over oneself. He abandons the notions that fatten the self, just as a loyal servant, when his duties are done, casts off his body as if it were a blade of grass. The rise and fall of the mind is the rise and fall of all; the destruction of the mind is the great attainment. Knowledge leads to the dissolution of the mind, while ignorance causes the mind to grow. This world-wheel is nothing but mind; the mountain ranges are mind; the sky is mind; the body is mind; friend is mind; enemy is mind. That impurity of imagination, which is the forgetting of the true nature of consciousness, is what is called 'mind'; this very tendency, which brings about worldly existence, is known as vāsanā. Consciousness, tinged with the sequence of perceptions and slightly tainted by imagination, is called the individual soul (jīva), which is but the essence of mind. That which, having fallen under the sway of perceptions, acquires a fixed identity and enters into ignorance, expands further and is imagined as the state of mind. The self is not the person of worldly existence, nor the body, nor the blood; all things such as the body are inert, while the embodied one is like space, untouched. When the body is cut into particles, nothing remains except blood and so forth; just as when a plantain stem is split, nothing remains but the leaves. Know the mind to be the living being, the person, having assumed that very form; the self takes itself, fashioned from its own imagined fragments. The person, spreading out threads of his own imagination, weaves them abundantly into a net for self-binding, just as a worm makes a cocoon. Having abandoned this bodily delusion, in another place and time, he takes up a different body, just as a sprout assumes the state of a leaf. Whatever disposition exists, such is the mind that arises; whatever a person’s mind is as he sleeps, that he sees in his dream at night. Water, when mixed with the taste of water, is sweet when blended with sweetness; a seed soaked in poison becomes bitter. Through a great auspicious disposition, the mind becomes great; from the kingdom of Indra’s mind, a person attains the state of Indra, even in a dream. By petty desires, the mind becomes small and feeble; just as, through the delusion of ghosts, a healthy person sees ghosts at night. When the mind is expansive and pure, impurity does not remain; likewise, when the mind is expansive and impure, clarity does not remain. When the mind is expansive and impure, the result arises accordingly; likewise, when it is expansive and pure, the result arises accordingly. Even when diminished, the truly excellent person does not abandon the noble path, being ever diligent, like the moon fulfilling the hope of fullness without ceasing. Here, there is neither bondage nor liberation, neither one bound nor binding; this is only an illusion arisen falsely, like a vine of magical tricks. This world, made of non-being, is like a city of the Gandharvas, arising from the sequence of a mirage, and appears like the illusion of two moons. The uncertainty that says, "I am not infinite, I am insignificant," arises; but by the certainty, "I am infinite, I am supreme," it is dissolved. Yet even the conception, "I am all-pervading, pure in my own self," is only a bondage in the world, imagined by one’s own mental constructions.