1. He (the knower of the Self) knows that highest home of Brahman,
in which all is contained and shines brightly. The wise who, without
desiring happiness, worship that Person, transcend this seed, (they are
not born again.)
2. He who forms desires in his mind, is born again through his
desires here and there. But to him whose desires are fulfilled and who
is conscious of the true Self (within himself) all desires vanish, even
here on earth.
3. That Self cannot be gained by the Veda, nor by understanding, nor
by much learning. He whom the Self chooses, by him the Self can be
gained. The Self chooses him (his body) as his own.
4. Nor is that Self to be gained by one who is destitute of
strength, or without earnestness, or without right meditation. But if a
wise man strives after it by those means (by strength, earnestness, and
right meditation), then his Self enters the home of Brahman.
5. When they have reached him (the Self), the sages become satisfied
through knowledge, they are conscious of their Self, their passions
have passed away, and they are tranquil. The wise, having reached Him
who is omnipresent everywhere, devoted to the Self, enter into him
wholly.
6. Having well ascertained the object of the knowledge of the
Vedanta, and having purified their nature by the Yoga of renunciation,
all anchorites, enjoying the highest immortality, become free at the
time of the great end (death) in the worlds of Brahma.
7. Their fifteen parts enter into their elements, their Devas (the
senses) into their (corresponding) Devas. Their deeds and their Self
with all his knowledge become all one in the highest Imperishable.
8. As the flowing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their name and
their form, thus a wise man, freed from name and form, goes to the
divine Person, who is greater than the great.
9. He who knows that highest Brahman, becomes even Brahman. In his
race no one is born ignorant of Brahman. He overcomes grief, he
overcomes evil; free from the fetters of the heart, he becomes immortal.
10. And this is declared by the following Rik-verse: “Let a man tell
this science of Brahman to those only who have performed all
(necessary) acts, who are versed in the Vedas, and firmly established
in (the lower) Brahman, who themselves offer as an oblation the one
Rishi (Agni), full of faith, and by whom the rite of (carrying fire on)
the head has been performed, according to the rule (of the Atharvanas).”
11. The Rishi Angiras formerly told this true (science); a man who
has not performed the (proper) rites, does not read it. Adoration to
the highest Rishis! Adoration to the highest Rishis!