Then, in his quest for brahmavidya,
the science of the ultimate truth,
Maharishi Ashvalyana went to Lord Brahma, the god of creation,
with the attitude of a disciple, carrying samidha,
the symbol of awareness of his own ignorance, and humbly asked:
"Lord, kindly teach me the eternally secret and most noble path of brahmavidya,
that the sages have always walked,
and through which the wise have dissolved their past bad actions
and experienced the ultimate truth."
Great Lord Brahma then said:
"To experience the ultimate reality,
one must first take refuge in
trust, devotion, meditation and yoga."
The ultimate reality cannot be known through
one's wealth, one's progeny or one's actions.
Renunciation is the only path
through which those who have known the ultimate reality,
have entered the deathless.
Beyond heaven shines the ultimate reality,
which is deep within the cave of the heart.
This can be experienced only by the faithful seeker.
Only one who knows the decisive meaning
of the knowledge contained in vedant,
who purifies his inner being with sannyas and yoga
and strives for brahmalok,
the realm of the ultimate reality,
attains it.
The one wishing to know the ultimate reality,
who lives in the discipline of sannyas,
has cleansed the body,
who sits in sukhasana - a comfortable body posture -
in a lonely place,
keeping his head, neck and spine aligned and erect,
converging the faculties of all the sense organs at one point,
who having bowed down to his master
in trust and devotion,
has dispelled all impurities of the heart
and moved beyond sorrow and suffering,
contemplates the essence of devotion thoroughly.
Thus, through meditation,
the sage will experience that
which is beyond thinking,
beyond manifestation,
and which has infinite forms;
which is benediction;
which is not-two;
which is the source of the ultimate reality;
which has no beginning, no middle, no end;
which is incomparable and all pervading;
which is consciousness
and the seat of bliss;
which has no form.
It is awesome.
The one that is known by the names Umasahaya,
the companion of Uma;
Neelkanth, the blue-throated one;
and Trilochan, the three eyed one;
the one who is master of the animate and inanimate universe,
who is peace incarnate,
who is the womb of all being,
who is a witness,
who is free of ignorance -
this is the one the sages attain through meditation.
It is also called Brahma, Shiva, Indra,
aksharbrahman, param virat, Vishnu, prana, kalagni and chandrama.
The one who realizes that the past and the future
- it is all divine -
is liberated from the cycle of birth and death.
There is no other way to liberation.
The one who sees that the self pervades all beings,
and that all beings pervade the self,
sees the brahman, the ultimate reality.
There is no other way.
The wise make conscience the base arani,
- a wood used for creating fire -
and Om the top arani.
The practice of creating friction
by rubbing om-arani and conscience-arani,
kindles the fire of knowing.
This fire burns away all bondage,
making one free.
In the trance of maya, the illusory,
man thinks his body to be all;
thus he pursues all manner of empty activity.
In jagratawastha, the waking state,
he seeks contentment in foolish pleasures,
in the satisfaction of lust and in intoxicants.
In the world of his imagination,
man experiences pleasure and pain
in swapnawastha, the dream state.
Man feels a measure of relief
in sushuptawastha, the state of deep sleep,
where all deceptions of illusions end
and man lapses into tamas guna,
life-energy's lethargic state.
Guided by the actions of past lives,
man returns again from
sushuptawastha, the state of deep sleep,
to swapnawastha, the dream state,
to jagratawastha, the waking state.
Thus, the embodied soul dwells in three cities:
the gross body, the subtle body and the causal body -
and the web of all illusion is born out of this.
Only when the three bodies have dissolved
will the embodied soul become free
from the web of illusions.
The soul will then realize eternal bliss.
It is out of this that prana -the life energy-,
mind and all the senses emerge.
It is out of this that Earth,
which bears sky, air, fire, water,
and all the world is created.
Parabrahman, the supreme reality,
which can never be destroyed,
is even more subtle
than the most subtle;
it is the source of all cause and effect;
it is the soul in all living beings -
that art thou,
thou art that.
Brahman is the nucleus of all worldly activities
in the waking, dream and sleep states.
I am Brahman:
knowing this, one is freed from bondage.
The one who is the experiencer,
the object of experience,
and the experiencing
in all the three states
of waking, dreaming and sleeping -
this I am not.
I am pure consciousness.
I am the wondrous witness,
that eternally emanates grace and goodness.
I am the non-dual Brahman.
All is born in me,
all is sustained in me,
and all is dissolved again in me.
I am the infinitesimal
and the cosmic.
I am this strange world.
I am the ancient one.
I am consciousnes
the source of all that is.
I am the lord of golden light, the effulgent one.
I am grace and goodness.
I am the inconceivable ultimate reality,
without hands and without feet.
I see without eyes,
I hear without ears.
Free of all forms,
I am the knower of all.
But none can know me.
I am eternal consciousness.
I am the creator of the many Vedas,
and it is I who teaches them.
I have created Vedanta,
the culmination of the Vedas,
which are the Upanishads.
All the Vedas speak of me.
I am beyond birth and beyond death.
Sin and virtue cannot touch me.
I am without body, senses and intellect.
For me, there is no earth, water, fire, air or sky.
Only the One,
who has realized the godliness
which dwells in the cave of the heart,
which is formless,
which is beyond the web of illusions,
which is the witness to the whole
and which is beyond
existence and non-existence,
will know my pure and godly nature.
Thus ends the Kaivalya Upanishad.