Cosmogony and the non-agency of the Self

10

From the unmanifest (avyakta) the [cosmic] egg arose; from the egg, Brahmā; thence the emission of creatures. This whole unfolding, made of {{māyā|the deluding creative power that produces the dual world}}, is in turn withdrawn again, step by step.

11

The aggregate of instruments [made] of the {{guṇa|the three qualities}}s, though composed of {{māyā|deluding creative power}} and insentient, performs actions; the embodied one (dehin) that presides over it, though sentient, does nothing whatever.

12

Just as iron, though it is insentient, moves when a magnet stands near, so the assemblage of instruments stirs into activity when the body is presided over by consciousness (cit).

13

Just as, when the sun has risen, this world of living beings performs its actions, yet the sun neither does those actions nor causes them to be done — so too the {{ātman / paramātman|the Self}}.

14

For the deluded mind, swooned [into identity] by the I-sense (ahaṃkāra) and [yet] awakened by consciousness, there arises here the conceit 'I am the person ({{puruṣa|the conscious self}})' and the experiencing of pleasure and pain.

15

"I am the doer, the enjoyer, the witness of actions high and low" — thus does the {{ātman / paramātman|Self}}, [though] by its own nature stainless and all-pervading, [falsely] presume.

16

As a flawless crystal takes on the color of variously colored [objects placed near it], so the all-pervading [Self] takes on the character of the {{upādhi|limiting adjunct that makes the Self appear conditioned}}, which is itself shaped by the {{guṇa|qualities}}s.

17

As the sun's reflected disc moves when the water moves and comes to rest when [the water] is still, so here too the {{ātman / paramātman|Self}} [seems to] move when the inner organ (antaḥkaraṇa) moves.

18

As Rāhu, though [himself] invisible, becomes manifest to the world when [he] stands upon the disc of the moon, so the {{ātman / paramātman|Self}}, though all-pervading, comes into view when [reflected as] resident in the intellect (buddhi).

19

All-pervading, beyond compare, non-dual ({{advaita|non-duality}}) — that is to be reached by the mind; the {{brahman|the absolute, the non-dual ground of being}} which, [reflected as] residing in the intellect, is apprehended — that, O disciple, is what is to be understood.