Verse 44

⁴⁴Clear, soft by nature, sweet, a ford for men to stand in: so is a sage, the friend of the waters, and he makes men clean by being seen, by being touched, by being spoken of. ⁴⁵Blazing, lit up by austerity, hard to master, his belly the only bowl he has: though he eats anything, a man joined in himself takes on no stain, as fire does not. ⁴⁶Sometimes hidden, sometimes plain, to be worshipped by those who want the good, he consumes everywhere what givers give, burning up the ill that went before and what comes after. ⁴⁷The all-pervading one, having entered this thing his own maya has made, which is marked as being and not being, is seen with the form of each thing he is in, as fire is in the fuel.

⁴⁸The states that begin at birth and end at the burning ground belong to the body and not to the self, as the digits belong to the moon; and they come by time, which travels an unseen road. ⁴⁹By time, whose rush is a flood, beings arise and end; and though this goes on always, it is not seen in one's own body, as it is not seen in the flames of a fire. ⁵⁰By the strands he takes up the strands, and lets them go when the season comes; and a yogin is not joined to them, as the lord of rays is not to what his rays take up. ⁵¹In his own being he is not known as divided, though he stands in what is manifest as if he had gone into it. The self stands where it stands, and only the thick of mind make it out otherwise, as with the sun.