self to the effect that I alone am the Supreme and that all things are merely superimposed on me. (2).

Sorely afflicted by the sun of the three miseries [**], and perplexed in mind, some one, after acquiring the qualifications of mind-control, etc., asks the good Master as follows. (3).

O Lord, out of mere mercy, tell me briefly bow I may, without (much) effort, be liberated from this bondage of births and deaths. (4).

(The Master replies.) The manner of thy speech seems to me to be excellent. I shall explain to thee clearly which is which. Listen with an attentive mind. (5).

The knowledge relating to the identity of the individual soul and the Supreme Self that arises from texts like "That thou art," is the means to liberation. (6).

What is the individual soul? What is the Supreme Self? How can there be identity between the two? And how can texts like "That thou art" express the same? (7).

We shall explain it (thus). What else, indeed, is the individual soul except thou alone. Thou that questionest me, 'who am I', art Brahman itself, without doubt. (8).

I have not yet clearly grasped, O Lord, even the meaning of the words, "I am Brahman." How can I understand, tell me, the meaning of the sentence (as a whole)? (9).

What thou sayest is true and free from reproach. For, a knowledge of the word-meaning is indeed essential for the understanding of the sentence-meaning. (10).

Why dost thou not understand thyself,--thou whose very nature is reality and bliss and (pure) consciousness that is the witness of the individual consciousness and all its workings? (11).

Leaving aside all thought relating to the body, etc., thou shouldst ever meditate upon

that whose nature is reality, bliss, and knowledge and which is the witness of consciousness, as thyself. (12).

Because the body has form, etc., like an earthen vessel or other object, and is, like an earthen vessel, composed of the (five) great elements, ether, etc., it cannot be the self. (13).

If, for the reasons aforesaid, this body is not the self; reveal the self, then, as clearly as a berry in the hand. (14).

As the witness of an earthen pot is different, from the pot and is not the pot in any sense, so is the witness of the body. Understand, therefore, "I am not the body." (15).

Conclude, in the same way, "I am the witness of the senses and not the senses themselves." So, too, understand, "I am not the mind, the consciousness, or the life-force." (16).

Also "I am not the combination (of these)." Understand, thus, by intelligent reasoning, the witness that is distinct from the object. (17).

Understand "I am He by whose mere proximity, the body, senses and other object become of (all) activities like selection, etc. (18).