The threefold suffering and the aim of inquiry

SK 1

Because of the affliction caused by the threefold suffering there arises the desire to know the means of removing it. [If it be objected that] this inquiry is pointless, since perceptible [remedies exist] — [we answer] no, for those [remedies] are not absolute nor lasting.

SK 2

The scriptural [remedy] is like the perceptible one, for it is bound up with impurity, decay, and excess [of merit over others]. Superior to both is the [remedy that comes] from the discriminative knowledge of the vyakta / avyakta (the manifest and the unmanifest) and the puruṣa (knower).

SK 3

Root nature (prakṛti / pradhāna / mūlaprakṛti (primordial material nature)) is uncaused [not a modification of anything]; the seven beginning with mahat / buddhi (the great one) are both cause and effect (prakṛti / pradhāna / mūlaprakṛti (nature-and-modification)); the set of sixteen is [pure] effect (modification); puruṣa (the self) is neither cause nor effect.