Chapter 1

1. It is only by the grace of God that the desire for non-duality arises in wise men, to save them from great fear.
2. By whom all this is pervaded—by the Self, in the Self, and for the Self—how can I bow to that formless, indivisible, auspicious, and immutable Self?
3. The universe, composed of the five elements, is like a mirage. To whom shall I bow when I the one and stainless?
4. The Self alone is everything; distinction and non-distinction do not exist. How can I say, 'it is' or 'it is not'? I am filled with wonder.
5. This is the essence and entirety of Vedanta, this is knowledge and wisdom: I am the Self, formless and all-pervading by my very nature.
6. That which is the Self of all, the divine, partless, and like the sky; inherently pure and stainless—that indeed am I, without a doubt.
7. I am indeed the inexhaustible, the infinite, the embodiment of pure consciousness. I do not know pleasure or pain, nor how they can belong to anyone.
8. For me, there are no mental actions, good or bad; no bodily actions, good or bad; no verbal actions, good or bad. I am the nectar of knowledge, pure, and beyond the senses.
9. The mind is indeed formless like space; the mind indeed faces all directions. The mind is beyond the mind, the mind is everything, yet in reality, there is no mind.
10. I alone am all this, beyond space and continuous. How can I see the Self as either manifest or hidden?
11. You are indeed the One. Why do you not understand? You are the same in all, changeless, ever-shining, and undivided. O Lord, how can you think of day and night?
12. Know the Self always to be one and continuous everywhere. I am the meditator and the supreme object of meditation. How can the indivisible be divided?
13. You are not born, nor do you die. You never have a body. The scripture, in many ways, declares the well-known truth: 'All is Brahman.'
14. You are He who is within and without. You are Shiva, everywhere and always. Why do you wander about, running here and there like a ghost?
15. Union and separation exist neither for you nor for me. You are not, I am not, this world is not. All is the Self alone.
16. You are not, nor do you belong to, the five senses like sound. You are indeed the supreme reality. Why then do you suffer?
17. For you, there is no birth or death, no mind, no bondage or liberation, no good or evil. O beloved, why do you weep? You and I have neither name nor form.
18. Oh mind, why do you wander deluded, running about like a ghost? See the Self as non-different. By abandoning attachment, be happy.
19. You are indeed the reality, free from modification, unwavering, one, the very form of liberation. You have neither passion nor dispassion. Why do you torment yourself out of desire for objects of lust?
20. All the scriptures declare the reality to be without attributes, pure, immutable, bodiless, and equanimous. Know that to be me, without a doubt.
21. Know that which has form to be unreal, and the formless to be eternal. Through this instruction in truth, there is no possibility of rebirth.
22. The wise say that the reality is one and the same. By renouncing attachment, the mind no longer sees duality or unity.
23. How can there be Samadhi (deep meditation) for that which is not the Self? How can there be Samadhi for that which is the Self? How can there be Samadhi if 'is' and 'is not' exist? If all is one and the nature of freedom, how can there be Samadhi?
24. You are the pure, equanimous reality, bodiless, unborn, and immutable. How can you think of yourself as 'I know' or 'I do not know'?
25. By such sayings as 'That thou art,' your own Self is affirmed. The scriptures say 'Not this, not this' to negate the unreal, which is composed of the five elements.
26. All this is ever pervaded by you, the Self, as the Self. O shameless mind, you have no meditator and no meditation. How can you meditate?
27. I do not know Shiva; how can I speak of him? I do not know Shiva; how can I worship him? I am Shiva, the supreme reality, whose nature is sameness, like the sky.
28. I am not the principle of 'I-ness'. I am the principle of sameness, free from the cause of imagination. Free from the perceiver and the perceived, how can the Self be self-realized?
29. There is no substance which is of the nature of the infinite. There is no substance which is of the nature of reality. The Self is the one form, the supreme reality. There is neither the injurer nor non-injury.
30. You are the pure, equanimous reality, bodiless, unborn, and immutable. How can there be delusion for the sake of the Self? And how can I be the deluded one?
31. When the pot is broken, the space within the pot merges with the universal space, free from division. United with Shiva through a pure mind, no difference appears to me.
32. There is no pot, no pot-space, no individual soul, no form of the soul. Know only Brahman, which is devoid of the known and the knower.
33. When all this, the body and so on, is unreal and like space, then Brahman is realized. For you, there is no chain of duality.
34. The innate Self also appears to me as non-different from the Supreme. It is formless like space, and truly one. How can there be a meditator and meditation?
35. Whatever I do, whatever I eat, whatever I offer, whatever I give—none of this is mine in any way. I am the pure, unborn, and immutable.
36. Know the entire universe to be formless. Know the entire universe to be without change. Know the entire universe to be of a purified body. Know the entire universe to be of the single form of Shiva.
37. You are indeed that truth, there is no doubt. What do I know, or what more is there to know? How do you consider the Self to be unknowable by the senses, yet knowable by the self?
38. Maya, Maya—how can it be, O dear one? Shadow, shadow does not exist. All this is the one truth, formless like space, and stainless.
39. I am free from beginning, middle, and end. I have never been bound. My firm conviction is that I am by nature pure and stainless.
40. The entire universe, beginning with Mahat (the great principle), does not appear to me as anything. All is only Brahman. How can there be the condition of castes and stages of life?
41. I know everything, in every way. I am the one, continuous. The five elements, beginning with space, are void, yet not void, and without support.
42. You are not a eunuch, not a man, not a woman; not perception, nor imagination. How can you consider the Self to be with joy or without joy?
43. It is not purified by the six-limbed yoga, nor by the destruction of the mind. It is not purified by the guru's instruction. It is the truth itself, known by itself.
44. The body is not composed of five elements, nor does the bodiless exist. All is the Self alone. How can there be the three states and the fourth?
45. I am not bound, nor am I ever liberated. I am not separate from Brahman. I am not the doer nor the enjoyer, and I am free from the pervader and the pervaded.
46. Just as water poured into water becomes one without distinction, so too do Prakriti (nature) and Purusha (consciousness) appear non-different to me.
47. If you are never liberated, nor ever bound, how do you think of the Self as with form and without form?
48. I know your supreme form, manifest like the sky. Your other form is like a mirage.
49. There is no guru, no instruction, no limiting adjunct, and no action for me. Know me to be bodiless space, pure by nature.
50. You are pure, bodiless, your mind is not beyond the Supreme. Are you not ashamed to say, 'I am the Self, the supreme reality'?
51. Why do you weep, O mind? Be the Self, by the Self. Drink, O beloved, the supreme nectar of non-duality, which is beyond all parts.
52. There is neither knowledge nor ignorance, nor a combination of knowledge and ignorance. He who has such knowledge always is knowledge itself; it cannot be otherwise.
53. There is no knowledge, no reasoning, no Samadhi yoga, no space or time, no guru's instruction. I am the truth of my own natural realization, like the sky, innate and eternal.
54. I am not born, nor have I died. I have no good or bad karma. I am the pure, attributeless Brahman. How can there be bondage or liberation for me?
55. If the divine is all-pervading, stable, full, and continuous, I see no separation. How can there be an inside and an outside?
56. The entire universe shines forth, undivided and continuous. Alas, what a great delusion is Maya, this conceptualization of duality and non-duality.
57. With form and without form, it is always 'not this, not this.' Free from difference and non-difference, the one Shiva exists.
58. You have no mother, father, or relative; no wife, son, or friend. You have no partiality or opposition. How can this affliction be in your mind?
59. O mind, for you there is neither day nor night, no rising nor setting. How can the wise imagine a body for the bodiless?
60. It is not undivided or divided, nor is it pain, pleasure, and so on. It is not all or not-all. Know the Self to be immutable.
61. I am not the doer nor the enjoyer. I have no karma, past or present. I have no body or bodilessness. What is 'mine' and 'not mine'?
62. I have no faults like attachment. Pain related to the body is not mine. Know me to be the one Self, vast like the sky.
63. O friend, O mind, what is the use of much talk? O friend, O mind, all this is to be reasoned out. What is essential has been told to you by me: You are the truth, like the sky.
64. In whatever state, wherever yogis may die, they merge there, like the space in a pot merges into the universal space.
65. Whether in a holy place or in the house of an outcaste, even if one loses memory while leaving the body, at that very moment one becomes liberated and attains the all-pervading state of oneness.
66. Yogis consider dharma (righteousness), artha (wealth), kama (desire), moksha (liberation), and all moving and unmoving things, including bipeds, to be like a mirage.
67. My firm conviction is this: I neither perform nor enjoy the actions of the past, present, or future.
68. The Avadhuta, naked and free from pride, roams happily, alone in a deserted place, purified by the nectar of sameness, finding everything within the Self alone.
69. Where the three and the fourth do not exist, there one finds the Self alone. Where there is no dharma or adharma, how can one be bound or liberated there?
70. He finds, he finds, but there is no mantra. There is no meter, no grammar, no Tantra. Immersed in the nectar of sameness, purified by contemplation, the supreme Avadhuta has uttered this.
71. All is void and non-void. Truth and untruth do not exist. This has been spoken from a state of natural being, preceded by the realization of the scriptures.