Listen, Raghava, to the unfolding wisdom of the mind and its mysteries. The entire world-wheel, the mountain ranges, the sky above, the very body, friend and foe alike—all these are nothing but manifestations of the mind. The mind is born from the impurity of imagination, which is the forgetting of the true nature of consciousness; this tendency, which gives rise to worldly existence, is known as vāsanā. When consciousness becomes tinged by the stream of perceptions and is slightly tainted by imagination, it is called the individual soul, the jīva, which is only the essence of mind. Under the sway of perceptions, consciousness acquires a fixed identity, enters into ignorance, and expands further, becoming what we call the state of mind. But know, 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 and pure. If the body is cut into particles, nothing remains but blood and other elements; just as when a plantain stem is split, only leaves are found, with no core. Understand that the mind is the living being, the person, having assumed that very form. The self fashions itself from its own imagined fragments. Like a worm weaving a cocoon, the person spreads out threads of imagination, binding himself in a net of his own making. When this bodily delusion is abandoned, in another place and time, a different body is taken up, just as a sprout assumes the state of a leaf. Whatever disposition exists in a person, such is the mind that arises; whatever the mind is during sleep, that is what is seen in dreams at night. Water, when mixed with sweetness, becomes sweet; a seed soaked in poison becomes bitter. In the same way, through an 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 a healthy person, deluded by ghosts, sees ghosts at night. When the mind is expansive and pure, impurity does not remain; when it is expansive and impure, clarity does not remain. The results that arise are according to the purity or impurity of the mind. Even when diminished, the truly excellent person does not abandon the noble path, remaining ever diligent, like the moon fulfilling the hope of fullness without ceasing. Here, there is neither bondage nor liberation, neither one bound nor binding; all 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, appearing like the illusion of two moons. At times, uncertainty arises: “I am not infinite, I am insignificant.” But certainty—“I am infinite, I am supreme”—dissolves that doubt. Even the conception “I am all-pervading, pure in my own self” is a bondage in the world, imagined by one’s own mental constructions. The state devoid of bondage and liberation, free from duality and unity, is entirely the essence of Brahman; this is the highest truth. When the mind attains purity and is unattached in all perceptions, it becomes as if mindless; only then does one perceive Brahman, not otherwise. When the mind is purified by the waters of auspicious contemplation, it acquires the vision of Brahman, just as a white cloth takes on color in a dye. When, through true conviction, everything is regarded as “I” and “mine,” and the distinction of acceptance and rejection is exhausted, what can be said of bondage or liberation? For the purified mind, the body, guided by scriptural wisdom and dispassion, sheds and regains its radiance, like a noble gemstone. When the mind attains unity with an object, that state of mental oneness, arising from imperfect knowledge, is momentary and perishable. But when the mind, having abandoned all external and internal perceptions, remains absorbed, that state is the attainment of the supreme goal. The clear perception of the seen and the seer is necessarily unreal; know that the absorption of the mind in that is its true nature, not anything else. Because the beginning and end are subject to destruction, what lies in between is also unreal; thus, the mind that knows wrongly is distressed, even though the object is in hand. If one does not perceive “this world is the Self,” it brings suffering; otherwise, this visible splendor alone bestows both enjoyment and liberation. Thinking “the water is one thing, the wave another” is ignorance of diversity; knowing “this wave is only water” is knowledge of unity. From ignorance arises suffering, which appears as what is to be rejected or accepted; in the absence of that, through knowledge, only infinity remains. Since the forms of the mind are imagined by thought and are unreal, tell me, Raghava, when the unreal is destroyed, what affliction remains? Just as a relative without affection is seen with a mind free from attachment and aversion, so too, behold the cage of appearances as your own Self. Just as one is not affected by pleasure or pain from a relative without affection, one whose Self is established in the knowledge of the Supreme is untouched. That beginningless, auspicious knowledge which is the middle ground between seer and seen—when established in that truth, the mind is at peace, like dust when the wind has ceased. When the wind of the mind is stilled, the dust of the body settles; in the city of worldly existence, the mist does not arise again. When the rain of latent impressions has ceased, and the support for them is exhausted, tranquility arises; when dullness and the trembling of the heart are gone, and the mire has dried up. Within the great forest of the heart, where the vines of thirst have withered and the clusters of the senses are diminished, the dense mass of false knowledge is wounded. The mist of delusion dissolves, like night at dawn; that dullness departs somewhere, as poison vanishes when neutralized by a mantra. Thus, Raghava, the story of the mind’s journey is told—a tale of illusion and awakening, of bondage and freedom, and ultimately of the serene realization that all is Brahman, pure and infinite.