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In plain words
. Homage to , whose body is .
Now, the .
Out of the full, which is free of , He first makes “I” shine, and then He wishes to divide His own into two branches; and from His own He takes on and spreading out, and abiding. I revere that non-duality of His, the whole, whose self is and .
A reflection of the understanding of the venerable , who stood as the pearl at the centre of the noble line of the venerable ,
is the utterly stainless treatise called ; and the one who set it forth taught a means to the human aim that is unsurpassed and has no witness but itself.
His disciple’s disciple, I, , having come to understand it from the venerable , make this short commentary on his .
On these the author has set down their gist in the , and the examination of it in the . Therefore, for the sake of those of slow understanding, I shall explain the sense of the properly in this way, so that may be clearly discerned.
It would be of help everywhere to one of small understanding, or here and there to one of very great mind, or else to no one else at all; but to my own self it would be of help.
The author wishes to pass on to others the state of being made of the Supreme Lord, whose he has seen directly for himself. He holds that it is attained without hindrance when it is preceded by the offering of his own identity. And so, as subordinate to a of bowing low before the Supreme Lord’s eminence, and with the thought of bringing about fitness for identity with the Supreme Lord, he sets out the purpose in form:
Having somehow won servanthood to the Great Lord, and wishing for the benefit of people too, I bring about the of Him, the cause of the full attainment of every accomplishment.
Here, the bowing towards the Supreme Lord that is marked by directing body, speech and mind to Him as their one content: that is the meaning of homage. And it becomes fitting for a person who goes by to do it so, if he sees the eminence over all of the one to be honoured. Otherwise, one who does not hold the reasoning in awareness, and sets about homage even to what is not the highest truth, simply falls among the people of . As has been said:
“Coloured by and , they do not find the supreme .”
For at that stage, one who is driven about by the impure , and of is in the state of a and nothing more. Compared with others, though, he would have some eminence too, through having crossed a few of the paths. So it has been said:
“In whom indeed, seeing Your unimpaired glory with faculties that are not made up, does a longing arise, even through confusion, to set You aside and praise a lesser giver of boons?”