As all living beings desire to be happy always, without misery,
as in the case of everyone there is observed supreme love for one’s self,
and as happiness alone is the cause for love, in order to gain that happiness
which is one’s nature and which is experienced in the state of deep sleep where there is no mind, one should know one’s self.
For that, the path of knowledge, the inquiry of the form “Who am I?”, is the principal means.
The gross body which is composed of the seven humours (dhatus), I am not;
the five cognitive sense organs, viz. the senses of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell, which apprehend their respective objects, viz. sound, touch, colour, taste, and odour, I am not;
the five cognitive sense organs, viz. the organs of speech, locomotion, grasping, excretion, and procreation, which have as their respective functions speaking, moving, grasping, excreting, and enjoying, I am not;
the five vital airs, prana, etc., which perform respectively the five functions of in-breathing, etc., I am not;
even the mind which thinks, I am not;
the nescience too, which is endowed only with the residual impressions of objects, and in which there are no objects and no functioning’s, I am not.
A：The seer and the object seen are like the rope and the snake.
Just as the knowledge of the rope which is the substratum will not arise unless the false knowledge of the illusory serpent goes,
so the realization of the Self which is the substratum will not be gained unless the belief that the world is real is removed.
