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Chapter 7

  1. The mendicant's patched garment is a path free from merit and demerit. He dwells in a deserted place, naked, pure, stainless, and immersed in sameness.
  2. The target and non-target are abandoned; he is devoid of right and wrong. The one who is pure, stainless, and the essence of all truth—how can such an Avadhuta engage in debate?
  3. He is free from the bondage of the fetters of hope, endowed with purity and right conduct. Thus, he is free from all, continuous, and of the nature of pure stainlessness.
  4. How can there be consideration of body and bodilessness? How can there be consideration of passion and dispassion? He is himself the truth, of natural form, pure, unwavering, and of the form of the sky.
  5. How can he find the truth where there is form and formlessness? He is supreme, of the form of the sky. How can there be objectification there?
  6. Of the form of the sky, continuous, the swan (symbol of the soul), the truth, pure, stainless, the swan. Thus, how can there be friend and non-friend, O friend? How can there be the modification of bondage and non-bondage?
  7. The one truth is continuous in all. How can there be pride in yoga and non-yoga? Thus, the supreme is continuous in all. And how can there be essence and non-essence?
  8. The one truth is stainless in all, of the form of the sky, continuous, and pure. Thus, how can there be attachment and non-attachment? How can there be truth and untruth?
  9. The yogi is free from union and separation; the enjoyer is free from enjoyment and non-enjoyment. Thus, he moves slowly, slowly, with a mind that has conceived the natural bliss.
  10. Ever engaged in knowledge and non-knowledge, in duality and non-duality. How can he be liberated? He is natural and pure. How can he be a yogi, pure, stainless, and enjoying sameness?
  11. Free from illusion and non-illusion, from existence and non-existence. Thus, how can there be essence and non-essence? The truth of sameness is of the form of the sky.
  12. Ever engaged in being free from all, free from the truth of all. Thus, how can there be life and death? How can there be karma through meditation and non-meditation?
  13. All this is like a magic show, like a mirage in the desert. The one Shiva exists, of an unbroken and formless nature.
  14. We are desireless in all things, up to dharma and moksha. How can the wise imagine passion and dispassion?
  15. Where one finds and finds not, there are no rules of meter. Immersed in the nectar of sameness, purified by contemplation, the supreme Avadhuta speaks the truth.