1. By the grace of the Lord which alone can save men from the great fear of Samsara, there arises in sages the intuitive knowledge of Non-duality (Advaita).
2. How can I worship that formless being who is indivisible, auspicious and immutable and by whom alone is filled the whole of this universe by means of his Self within the conscious self?
3. This universe made of the five elements is like water in a mirage. Alas! Whom shall I salute – I, who am the one Self, immaculate!
4. All is purely Atman. Distinction and non-distinction do not exist. How can I say whether a thing exists or exists not? The feeling of wonder is roused in my mind.
5. The Supreme knowledge which is the all-in-all and the very essence of Vedanta is also the discriminative knowledge that arises from worldly experience. I am the Atman who is by nature formless and all-pervading.
6. There is no doubt I am that being who is the omnifortuned God, who is undivided resembling ethereal space (Gagana) and who is by nature spotless and pure.
7. I alone am the immutable, the unlimited and the embodiment of the pure knowledge of discrimination. I do not know how and to whom does exist pleasure and pain.
8. To me good and evil do not pertain to mental activity; nor does it belong to my bodily act; nor does it characterise my speech-activity. I am the nectar of knowledge, pure and transcending the senses.
9. Mind alone is of the form of etherial space; mind alone is omnifaced; mind is that which transcends; and mind is everything; but in reality, there is no mind.
10. I, who am single, am all this universe, am beyond ether and impenetrable. How can I perceive the Self either directly or as veiled?
11. You who are only one – why do not you understand that yon are the unchangeable equally perceived in all? Lord! how can you, who are ever shining unrestricted, think of day and night?
12. Know the Atman to be eternal, to be one everywhere, unintercepted. I am therefore the meditator, as also the Supreme object of meditation. How then can the indivisible be divided?
13. Neither were you born nor were you dead. Never had you any body. The Sruti declares in various ways the well-known teaching that all is Brahman.
14. You are that being who is both outside and inside the Blissful Shiva who exists everywhere and at all times. How then can you wander here and there perplexed like a disembodied spirit?
15. Union and separation exist neither to you nor to me. Neither do you exist, nor do I, nor this universe of ours. Everything is purely Atman by itself.
16. Neither do you exist for the five objects of the senses beginning with sound, nor do they exist for you. You alone are the Supreme existence (Sattva). Why then do you suffer?
17. To you there exists neither birth and death, nor desire, nor bondage and freedom, nor good and evil. Why then, my dear child, do you cry? Name and form exist neither for you nor for me.
18. Ah! my beloved friend, why do you run here perplexed like a disembodied spirit? See Atman to be undivided. And giving up attachment become happy.
19. You alone are the Supreme Principle which is devoid of change, which is immovable, only one, and of Beatific body. Neither is there attachment nor indifference to attachment to you. How then do you suffer by following the dictates of your vain desires?
20. All the Srutis teach of the internal Principle that is unqualified, pure and changeless, and that is not the body and is equally existent in all. Know me to be that; there is no doubt.
21. Know that which is endowed with form to be false and that which is formless to be eternal. By the learning of this truth from a teacher, there will be no more births in Samsara.
22. The sages say that the Self is one only, equal in all. By the giving up of attachment, again the mind which is one in many does not exist.
23. If 'all is one' is the nature of (moksha) freedom, how can the condition of not self be the state of hyper-concious realisation? How can the condition of self be the state of hyper-conscious realisation? how can the state in which neither existence nor non-existence is predicable be the state of hyper-conscious existence?”
24. You are the pure spirit equally existent in all; you are devoid of body, unborn and imperishable. How can yon think of your Self as "I know him here" and as "I do not know him"?
25. The innate nature of Atman is indeed expounded in such texts as "That thou art." But when the Sruti declares "not this, not this," the unreal universe made of the five elements is meant.
26. This whole universe is solely filled without intermission by the Self within the internal organ, of your own consciousness. The meditator, meditation and the organ of consciousness cannot exist for you. Without shame how can you meditate?
27. If I am the blissful Shiva who is the Supreme Reality and whose nature, just like etherial space is the same in all, how can I speak of Shiva whom I do not know, and how can I worship Shiva whom I do not know?
28. The principle of ego is not the universal principle which is free from the cause of superimposition and from the distinctions of the perceived and the perceiver. How can That therefore be understood by one's self?
29. There is no substance whatsoever which is by nature unlimited; there is no substance whatsoever which is of the nature of reality. The highest truth is Atman in essence. Neither is there injury nor non-injury.
30. You are pure and are the Supreme Essence which exists equally in all and which is bodiless, unborn and undecaying. How can there be delusion with reference to the Atman? Or how can I be the deluded?
31. When the pot is broken, the space circumscribed by the pot completely disappears losing distinction. Purified in mind no distinction appears to me from Shiva, (the Pure).
82. No pot, consequently no pot-space. Similarly, no individual being and hence no individual
body. Know that Brahman is per se free from the distinctions of the knowable and the knower.
33. That Atman who is everywhere, during all time, everything, who is eternal and unchangeable and who comprehends all, both existence and non-existence, – know me to be that, there is no doubt.
34. There are no Vedas, no worlds, no gods, no sacrifices, no caste and religious order, as also no descent, no order of life, no path of smoke nor that of the solar ray. The highest truth is solely of the essential nature of Brahman.
35. If you, who are one without the distinctions of the pervaded and the pervader, were to have reached the end of your existence, how can you think of the Atman as directly perceivable by the senses and as beyond the range of the senses?
36. Some seek for non-duality, while others seek for duality. Both do not know the truth which is equal in all and which is devoid of both duality and non-duality.
37. How can these describe the truth which is beyond the range of speech and thought, which is devoid of white and other colours and which is devoid of sound and other qualities of the senses?
38. When all this, beginning with the body is false and resembles ethereal space to you, then alone there has arisen the knowledge of Brahman and there will not exist to you the succession of dual perceptions.
39. Even the innate soul appears to me as non-distinct from the Supreme Self, to be of the form of ether, so also to be One. How can there exist the meditator and meditated?
40. Whatever I do, whatever I eat, whatever I sacrifice, whatever I give, – all these are not in the least for my own sake, I am pure, unborn and undecaying.
41. Know the whole of this universe to be formless; know the whole of this universe to be changeless; know the whole of this universe to be purified body; know the whole of this universe to be solely of the nature of Shiva.
42. You are the truth; there is no doubt about it. Or else what do I know other than it? How can you think of the Atman which is perceivable in one's own self as unperceivable.
43. My beloved child, how can Maya which is only a shadow exist as illusory reflection, for chhaya (shadow) does not exist? The whole of this universe is entirely the Truth, is of the form of ether and spotless.
44. I am without beginning, middle and end, I am not bound at any time. I am fully convinced that I am essentially by nature spotless and pure.
45. The whole of this universe beginning with Mahat (the great principle of mind-stuff) is not manifest to me in the least. All is Brahman; and how can there exist to me caste and religious order?
46. I know that everything, by all means, is the one indivisible principle, "I", which is supportless and voidless, and that the group of five substancesn beginning with ether is void.
47. The Atman is not an eunuch, not a male, not a female; it is not an idea, not a fabrication of the imagination. How can you think at all of such a one who is full of bliss as devoid of bliss?
48. Is not the Atman pure without the practice of the six-limbed Yoga? is it not pure without the destruction of mind? is it not pure without the teaching of a Guru? Our own self is the Supreme Self and of its own accord is awakened into consciousness.
49. There is no body at all that is of the nature of the five elements. Does not then the bodiless Self exist? The Atman alone is that which exists by itself, is all and is the fourth state of the manifesting self, how can it have three other states?
50. Neither am I the bound, nor am I the freed, nor am I separate from Brahman. Neither am I the doer nor am I the enjoyer, being devoid of the distinctions of the pervader and the pervaded.
51. Just as water when placed in water is one water without distinctions, so also both Prakriti, (nature) and Puruska, (soul) appear to me indistinguishable.
52. If it is true that you are neither the freed nor the bound, how can you think of Atman who is formless as endowed with form?
53. I know your supreme nature which is directly visible and is like ether. What is your lower nature is therefore like water in a mirage.
54. There is no Guru, no teaching, no conditioning cause (Upadhi), no action. Know that "I" which exists is bodiless, ethereal and by nature pure.
55. You are pure; you are bodiless. And so your organ of consciousness is not higher than the highest. Do not be ashamed to say "I am the Atman which is the Supreme Truth."
56. Why do you cry, my beloved son? You yourself become the Atman. Drink, my child, the supreme nectar of non-duality (Advaita) that transcends all the sciences.
57. Neither there is knowledge nor ignorance, nor there is knowledge combined with ignorance. He whose knowledge is always of this kind becomes that knowledge alone and not otherwise.
53. Knowledge is not abstract reasoning, nor is it the attainment of hyper-conscious state. It is not space and time, nor the teaching of a Guru. The innate knowledge of the ego is the reality almost like ether, natural and permanent.
59. Neither am I born nor was I dead. Good and evil actions do not exist to me. I am the pure and unqualified Brahman. How can there be freedom from bondage to me?
60. If the all-pervading Lord is firm, full and uninterrupted, I do not see any break at all. How can He be external and internal?
61. The whole world shines undivided and unbroken. Alas, the great illusion of Maya! – the oscillation between duality and non-duality.
62. Always thinking of both the form-possessing and the formless as "not this, not this" and entirely bereft of distinction and non-distinction, Shiva remains by Himself single.
63. Mother, father, relative have you none; wife, son and friend have you none. There exists to you neither likes nor dislikes. Why then is this torment in your mind?
64. Beloved child, to you there is neither day nor night, neither rise nor fall. Why vainly imagine a body in what is devoid of body?
65. Know the unchangeable Atman neither as divided nor as undivided, neither as pain nor as pleasure and neither as the all nor as the not-all.
66. I am not the doer; I am not the enjoyer. No actions done before now pertain to me. There exists to me neither body, nor bodilessness. Can there be anything like not-mine and mine?
67. To me there are not attachment and such other faults, to me there are not sufferings arising from body and such other objects. Know me alone to be the Atman, which is vast and like unto ether.
68. Friend, my soul, what is the use of vain talk? Friend, my soul, all this is mere conjecture. Whatever forms the essence has been told by me to you. You alone are the truth, and are like ether.
69. With whatsoever conception and in whichsoever place the Yogins die, they become dissolved in That Atman in the same way as pot-space in the universal space.
70. Whether in a holy place or in the house of a Chandala, leaving his body, even though the Yogin had lost his consciousness, he attains freedom and enters into the state of Kaivalya (Isolation).
71. Righteousness, wealth, desire of sensual enjoyments, freedom, also the moveable and immoveable objects of the universe headed by man – all these, the Yogins look upon as resembling water in a mirage.
72. My mind is settled. I do not do, and do not enjoy the past and future actions as also those which have begun to fructify in the present life.
78. Staying alone and happy in a deserted house and purified by equal love to all beings, the Avadhuta wanders naked, understanding everything in the Atman itself.
74. Where there is neither the three states of consciousness nor the fourth, there one remains merged solely in the Atman. Where there is neither righteousness nor nonrighteousness, how can there be the bound and the freed?
75. The supreme ascetic does not at all know any mantra bearing the characteristics of Vedic metre; nor does he understand any Tantric means of worship. He is always merged in the spiritual essence equally existent in all and purified by meditation. This is his prattling.
76. Either complete void or voidlessness, either existence or non-existence does not exist. This has been uttered from innate ideas through the knowledge of the Sastras.
Thus ends the first chapter of the Song of the Ascetic taught by Dattatreya, named "The Teaching of the Knowledge of Atman.