Verse 26

²⁶So the sage drank in with his ears the words of the moon-crested one, a spring of nectar swollen with the secret of dharma, and was not satisfied. ²⁷Long driven to wander by Visnu's maya and much worn down, the heap of his afflictions struck away by the nectar of Siva's speech, he said to him: ²⁸Ah, this play of the Lord is hard for those who wear bodies to make out: the rulers of the world bow to what is theirs to rule, and praise it. ²⁹For the most part, so as to get those with bodies to take up dharma, those who teach it do it themselves, and welcome it when it is done, and praise it. ³⁰The greatness of the Bhagavan is not spoiled by so much, by workings made of his own maya, any more than a conjuror is spoiled by his trickery.

³¹He brought this whole world forth with his mind and then entered it himself, and while the strands do the work he shines out as though he were the doer, the way a man does who is seeing a dream. ³²Salutation to that Bhagavan, who is the three strands and the self of the strands, alone, without a second, the teacher, whose form is Brahman.