Both cannot be superimposed, for there is naught different from them and superimposition cannot be on nothing. Hence, the reality of the secondless (self) must be accepted. (53).

What is expounded by the Vedas is the secondless (Brahman) that cannot be known by direct perception and other proofs, and not duality, for the latter is already established by ordinary reasoning. (54).

The secondless (Brahman) is of the nature of happiness, while duality is always unendurable misery. The Vedas, therefore, expound only that [**] which is aspired for. (55).

In respect of the secondless reality which is expounded by the Vedas and which is of the nature of bliss, some say that the condition of individual self is its ordinary nature. (56).

If the condition of individual self be the very nature of (Brahman that is) absolute consciousness, then, like the heat and light of fire, it can never disappear. (57).

Some are of opinion that the individual soul becomes the supreme soul by virtue of spiritual effort in the same way as iron becomes gold by the action of some chemical. (58).

This is not right; for when the power of the chemical disappears by lapse of time, the golden colour that was imparted to the iron, also disappears. (59).

In the same way, the condition of individual soul, with its characteristics of pleasure and pain, will only seem to disappear (according to the above reasoning), but will not be utterly destroyed. (60).

Therefore, if, by its very nature, it is the individual self, it will for ever remain the individual self. 'In the same way, if (by its very nature) it is the supreme self, it stands to reason that it is always the supreme self. (61).

Even if the individual soul were to attain (only a) similarity with the supreme self by virtue of spiritual efforts, it has been decided

by all authorities that even that similarity must necessarily perish after some time [**]. (62).

Having therefore destroyed, by the knowledge of the self, the insuperable ignorance regarding one's self and phenomenal limitation (samsara) which is of the nature of (that) ignorance, one becomes oneself the Infinite, and naught else remains. (63).

All the Vedas and all religious treatises (smriti) expound the supreme secondless Self whose nature is reality, knowledge and bliss as the thing to be realised. (64)

In respect of all the numerous Vedic passages declaring oneness, all other passages are said to be subordinate thereto. (65).

[**] From passages like "that thou art," how does the knowledge of non-duality spring up, at whose very origin the conditions of doer, etc., disappear, like darkness at the rise of the sun? (66).