Prose-section 33
In plain words
The ego and everything that follows from it show up in every way as things seen. They are unreal, they change, they last a moment, and being inert they cannot know anything. In daydream, dream and deep sleep they keep disappearing, and so do their changes. What stays even in deep sleep and knows them is the Self within, what the word ‘I’ truly means; as scripture says, it is never born and never dies, it is the witness, it does not change, and it is other than both being and non-being. So none of these can be that Self. This body is a lump of flesh and filth born from the parents’ impurities, a corpse. Put it far away from you, as one keeps an outcaste at a distance. Stop taking as ‘I’ this gross body, the pride the mind builds on it, and its name, form, family, lineage, caste and stage of life; stop taking as ‘I’ the subtle body and its doing and the rest. Place your sense of ‘I’ in the Self, which is truth, knowledge and bliss. Brahman is the ground of all and shines by itself, and the whole world is only a reflection in it, like a city seen in a mirror. Dissolve the self into it as the space in a pot dissolves into open space, and know your own nature by direct experience as ‘That am I’, with no difference: formless, actionless, one without a second, undivided being, awareness and bliss. An actor takes back his own form and drops the costume; drop this false body in the same way. Look into this body and the whole cosmos, and push them away with knowledge like a pot of filth. Then, by that motionless, undivided abiding, stay as Brahman alone, the undivided joy, simply still at all times, with nothing left to do, and come to the highest peace.
Word for word
Everything beginning with the ego appears in every respect as an object seen; it is observed to be unreal, changing and momentary, and is inert, unable to know everything. These things and their modifications, repeatedly found absent in fancy, dream and deep sleep, cannot be the inward Self, the meaning of ‘I’. That Self remains even in deep sleep and knows them; as revelation states, it is eternal, without birth or destruction, the witness, changeless, distinct from being and non-being. Therefore set far away this corpse-like body, a mass of flesh and waste born from the parents’ bodily impurities, as one sets apart a caṇḍāla. Abandon identification as ‘I’ with this gross body, the intellect’s imagined identification with it, its name, form, family, lineage, class and stage of life; likewise with the subtle body and its attributes such as doership. Place the understanding of ‘I’ in the Self, reality-knowledge-bliss. Resolve the individual self, like pot-space in the great space, into self-luminous Brahman, the substratum of all, in which this whole world appears merely as a reflection, like a city reflected in a mirror. Directly know your true nature, without difference, as ‘That am I’: formless, actionless, non-dual, indivisible existence-consciousness-bliss. As an actor resumes his own appearance and discards the assumed costume, relinquish this unreal body. Examine this bodily microcosm and cosmic macrocosm and remove them through knowledge like a vessel of filth. Through that motionless, undivided abidance, remain still at all times as Brahman alone, indivisible happiness. With all that needs doing accomplished, attain supreme peace.