Hearing it (explained), this lord of men may cross beyond all misery, so that gain and loss, (what is) agreeable and (what is) odious, old age and death, fear and vindictiveness, hunger and thirst, frenzy and worldly greatness, disgust and also laziness, desire and wrath, ruin and prosperity, may not trouble him.'

Some (say), that freedom from death (results) from action; and others that death exists not. Hear me explain (this), O king! have no misgiving about it. Both truths, O Kshatriya! have been current from the beginning. The wise maintain what (is called) delusion (to be) death. I verily call heedlessness death, and likewise I call freedom from heedlessness immortality.

O you of great glory! this universe becomes manifest through his special forms -- names and the rest. The Vedas proclaim (his form) after describing (it) well, and (they also) state his difference from the universe. For that are this penance and sacrifice prescribed. By these a learned man acquires merit, and afterwards destroying sin by merit, he has his self illuminated by knowledge. By knowledge the learned man attains the self.

Those who entering (as it were) the womb of a preceptor, and becoming (as it were) a fœtus, practise the life of Brahmakârins, become even in this world authors of Sâstras, and they repair to the highest truth after casting off (this) body. They subjugate desires here in this world, practising forbearance in pursuit of the Brahmic state; and with courage, they even here remove the self out of the body, like the soft fibres from the Muñga. Father and mother, O descendant of Bharata! only form the body. But the birth obtained from the preceptor, that verily is true, and likewise immortal.

Grief and wrath, and avarice, desire, delusion, laziness, want of forgiveness, vanity, craving, friendship, censoriousness, and reviling others -- these twelve great enormities are destructive of a man's life. These, O king of kings! attend on each and every man. Beset by these, a man, deluded in his understanding, acts sinfully. A man full of attachments, merciless, harsh (of speech), talkative, cherishing wrath in his heart, and boastful -- these are the men of cruel qualities; (such) persons, even obtaining wealth, do not always enjoy (it).

That pure, great light, which is radiant; that great glory; that, verily, which the gods worship; that by means of which the sun shines forth -- that eternal divine being is perceived by devotees. From (that) pure (principle) the Brahman is produced; by (that) pure (principle) the Brahman is developed; that pure (principle), not illumined among all radiant (bodies), is (itself) luminous and illuminates (them).