Liberation-in-life, the liberated sage, and the fruit
Ancient Ādiśeṣa Sanskrit68
The knower of the Self crosses beyond grief; therefore the wise one fears nothing from any quarter. For him there is not even the fear of death from death itself — whence, then, any other [fear]?
69
Eternally free of decrease and increase, of the slain and the slayer, of bondage and release — this is the truth of {{paramārtha|supreme reality}}. Whatever is other than this is all untrue.
70
Having thus discerned {{prakṛti / mūlaprakṛti|nature}} and the {{puruṣa|conscious self}}, [the sage,] with the net of [conceptual] construction cast off, delighting in the Self, established in [perfect] quietude, becomes the Alone (kevalin — see {{kaivalya / kevalin|absolute aloneness; the liberated one}}).
71
As the reed, the plantain, the bamboo, and the [hollow] cane perish once they have come to their own flowering, so [the upādhis,] become [merely] one's [transient] nature, perish on attaining [their fulfilled] nature.
72
When the knot of ignorance is split, when the host of doubts is cut through, when [the store of] merit is exhausted and the seed of birth is burnt up, one goes to the supreme Self, Hari.
73
{{mokṣa|release, redefined here non-spatially}} has no abode whatever, nor any going-away to some other place. The splitting of the knot [woven] of ignorance — that they know as release (mokṣa).
74
Having awakened thus [to the fact] that this form of the world, made of Viṣṇu's {{māyā|deluding power}}, is unreal, one should become tranquil, free of the pairs of opposites, of limiting adjuncts ({{upādhi|limiting adjuncts}}s), and of attachment to enjoyment.
75
Having understood {{prakṛti / mūlaprakṛti|nature}} as [a thing] apart [from himself], the {{puruṣa|conscious self}}, [though] moving in the midst of transmigration, becomes wholly freed from all actions, as the lotus-leaf [is untouched] by the waters.
76
Eating this or that, clothed in whatever [comes to hand], tranquil, and lying down anywhere at all, the [sage who is the] Self of all beings is [thereby] released.
77
Though he perform [thousands of] horse-sacrifices, or [a hundred] thousand slayings of brahmins, the knower of {{paramārtha|supreme reality}}, [being] stainless, is touched neither by [their] merit nor by [their] sin. [Note: 'hayamedhasaharāṇy' is a scribal corruption, most likely for 'hayamedhasahasrāṇy', 'thousands of horse-sacrifices'.]
78
Free of intoxication, anger, elation, envy, despondency, fear, and harshness, his mind beyond speech, without praise-hymns or sacrificial calls (vaṣaṭ), the man of unfathomable understanding should wander about as though insentient (jaḍa).
79
Having thus apprehended the {{paramārtha|supreme reality}}, [which is] devoid of origination and destruction — his duty done, his birth made fruitful, [now] all-pervading — he abides as he pleases.
80
Who thus knows [the Self as] all-pervading, undivided, the Self of all, with [all] manifoldness shaken off, supreme bliss beyond compare — he becomes of that very substance.
81
Whether at a [sacred] ford or in the house of an outcaste (dog-cooker), [whether] even his memory be lost as he gives up the body, [the sage,] released [already] at the very moment of [his] knowledge, his grief slain, goes to {{kaivalya / kevalin|absolute aloneness/isolation}}.
82
[Resorting to] the service of a [sacred] ford [makes] for merit; dying in the dwelling of an outcaste [makes] for hell — but for one in whom there is no touch of the stain of merit or demerit, what is [any of] that to him?
83
As a man whose foot has slipped from the top of a tree falls to the ground though he does not wish it, so one who knows [the distinction of] the {{guṇa|qualities}}s and the {{puruṣa|conscious self}} becomes the Alone (kevalin — {{kaivalya / kevalin|the liberated one}}) even without wishing it.
84
Even one who, having begun the practice of the path to {{paramārtha|supreme reality}}, has not [yet] attained [the full state of] yoga — he too, indeed, [becomes] an enjoyer of the enjoyments of the world of the gods and, glad of mind, rejoices for a very long time.
85
As a king who is universal sovereign over [his] domains is honored by all people, so one who has fallen [short] of yoga is, throughout the worlds, honored by all the gods.
86
After a great length of time, the great one, [again] obtaining human birth and practicing yoga, attains the divine nectar [of immortality] — that which is the supreme abode of Viṣṇu. [Note: in the source TEI this verse carries xml:id="PAS_8", a duplicate-ID corruption; by reading order it is verse 86.]
87
Having surveyed the whole science of Vedānta, Śeṣa, [who is] the support of the world, composed this Essence of Supreme Truth in eighty-five {{āryā|the mora-counting metre of the whole poem}} [verses]. [Note: the colophon's count of 'eighty-five' (āryapañcāśītyā) does not match the 87 numbered verses transmitted; this is a known feature of the Ādiśeṣa recension and is left as transmitted.]
colophon
Thus the Paramārthasāra (Essence of Supreme Truth) is concluded.