Chapter 27: Liberation from Falsehood

(1) The Supreme Lord [as Kapila] said: 'Even though the living entity abides in a material body, he is not affected by the modes of nature when he does not claim proprietorship and thus is not subject to change, just like the sun that is not affected by being reflected in water. (2) But when this very living entity is absorbed in false ego and thus is possessed by the modes of material nature, the individual soul is bewildered and thinks: 'I am the doer'. (3) Because of the faulty actions resulting from dealing with material nature in such a way, he thus in discontent helplessly undergoes the repeated occurrence of birth and death in being born from different wombs [or species] depending the good or bad life he led or a combination of these. (4) Like having landed in a nightmare in which the things happening do not really exist, there is for the living entity who [only] contemplates what occurs to his senses no end to his materially conditioned existence [of illusion]. (5) Therefore the mind of attachment to material pleasure must consequently without attachment gradually be brought under control on the path of bhakti yoga. (6) Beginning with yama [meaning the great vow of yoga of nonviolence, truth, non-stealing, celibacy and non-possessiveness in the practice of detachment], practice the different forms of yoga and develop, endowed with faith, by listening to My stories unalloyed devotion unto Me. (7) Be therein without enmity and regard all living beings as equal, do not entertain intimate relations and be celibate *, be silent and offer the results of your labor. (8) Be satisfied with whatever comes of its own, eat little and live thoughtfully in a secluded place and be peaceful, kind, compassionate and self-realized. (9) Do not follow the physical concept of life in relating to others and your own body but rather see, through spiritual knowledge, the factual truth of [both] the material and the personal aspect. (10) Transcend the stages of consciousness [of waking, dreaming and deep sleep] and stay away from other conceptions of life. Thus with a purified intellect see the true self, the soul of your realization inside, alike the sun before your eyes [outside]. (11) Arrive at the realization of the transcendental Support of the Material Cause [the Supreme Soul] that is manifest as a reflection within the untrue, as an eye for the illusory of matter that penetrated everything as one without a second. (12) It is like the sun in the sky that above water is seen as a reflection on that water or on a wall. (13) Thus the truth of the self is revealed by its reflections in the threefold of the materially identified ego consisting of body, senses and mind. (14) Someone who in this material world falsely unites with the material elements, the objects of enjoyment, the material senses, the mind, intelligence and so on, is situated in sleep, but awakened [in the devotion of yoga] he is freed from false ego. (15) Even though he is not lost, someone [who awakens] unjustly [at first] thinks that he is lost because he, just like someone upset because of losing his fortune, as the silent witness realizes the demise of his false ego. (16) Coming to understand this, knowing the situation he accepted under the false ego, such a person realizes the mercy of the original position of his true self, his original individuality [svarûpa].'

(17) Devahûti said: 'Dear brahmin, is it not so that material nature never releases the soul because the two are eternally attracted to each other oh Best One? (18) As there is no separate existence of  aroma and earth or of water and taste, so it is  also with intelligence and consciousness. (19) How then can there be the soul free from material nature? For the soul as a non-doer existing with those modes, is bound to the karma associated with them. (20) The great fear one sometimes may avoid by contemplating the fundamental principles, will reappear because the cause [the gunas] continued to be.'

(21) The Supreme Lord said: '[One will realize the freedom,] when one with a pure mind serious unto Me and faithfully listening to My stories in devotional service manages to perform one's duties without desiring the fruits thereof. (22) By means of spiritual knowledge someone, with the vision of the Absolute Truth in yoga strongly being connected in penance, gets detached and firmly fixed in being absorbed in the soul. (23) Bound to its material nature a living entity is day by day consumed, disappearing gradually like firewood on fire. (24) Giving up on the pleasure he tasted [in the material world] because he sees the wrong of the desire to enjoy it always and the harm that dependence gives, he stands in his own glory. (25) The way it is with someone who in his sleep has a dream that brings him many bad things, that same dream with him being awake will not in the least daunt him. (26) The same way someone who is always contented within and fixes his mind upon Me, thus knowing the Absolute Truth, has nothing to fear from material nature. (27) When someone wise thus for many years and many births is engaged in self-realization, he will develop a distaste for anything up to the highest spiritual position [of Satyaloka]. (28-29) Someone devoted to Me who under My protection for the sake of awakening his intelligence, by My unlimited mercy goes for the ultimate goal of his existence of what is called kaivalya [enlightenment, emancipation, beatitude], will in this life attain a steady self-awareness and be free from doubt. The yogi who departed for that heavenly abode will, after leaving behind the subtle as also the gross body, never return. (30) When the attention of the perfected yogi is not drawn towards yogic powers my dear mother, he then, having no other purpose in his life, in his progress towards Me will never be frustrated, because he will not find the power of death therein.'