Dattatreya said:
1. What the Srutis teach in various ways as "we," ether and such other objects, – all this is like water in a mirage. If there exists one Shiva who is eternally existing in all, where then is the compared and the comparison?
2. Beyond and without, non-divisibility and divisibility, beyond and without, activity and changeability, if their”
3. Mind alone is all-penetrating and uninterrupted and is beyond everything devoid of non-extension and extension; mind alone is the eternal and equally existing Shiva in all. How can there be the instrument of mind, and how can there be the instrument of speech?
4. Who contradicts the distinctions of day and night, who keeps off the distinctions of the risen and not-risen, if such an eternal and all existing Shiva alone exists, how can there be the shinning of sun and moon?
5. Rid of the distinctions of desire and non-desire, and devoid of the distinctions of action and inaction, if there exists the one Shiva undivided and all embracing, how can there be distinct perceptions of the external and the internal?
6. If the ultimate is devoid of the distinctions of essence and non-essence, if it is devoid of voidness and non-voidness, it is the unintercepted and all-comprehending Shiva and the one that exists in all, how can there be a first and how can there be a last?
7. If distinction and non-distinction are set aside, if teacher and knowledge are cast off and if there is the one, eternal, all existing Shiva, how can there be a third state of consciousness, and how can there be a fourth state?”
8. If neither the spoken nor the unspoken is the truth, if neither the known nor the unknown is the truth and if there is the one, eternal all-existing Shiva, how can there be the objects of the senses, the senses, the intellect and the mind?
9. If ether and air are not real, if earth and fire are not real and if the one, eternal Shiva exists in everything, how can there be cloud and how can there be rain?
10. If the fiction of a world is thrown-away, if the fiction of Gods is also set aside, and if the one eternal Shiva exists everywhere, how can there be the discrimination of good and evil?
11. If death and immortality are thrown away, if the organs of perception and sensation as also the non-organs are given up and if the one eternal Shiva is everywhere, how can we speak of coming and going?
12. If there are no distinction of Prakriti and Purusha, if there are no distinctions of cause and effect and if the one eternal Shiva exists everywhere, how can we speak of person and nonperson?
13. Neither there is the third kind of misery pertaining to the bhutas nor is there the second kind pertaining to the soul. If the one eternal Shiva exists everywhere, how can there be old age, youth and childhood?”
14. If He is supreme devoid, of religious and social orders of life, if He is supreme without the distinctions of cause and agent of action, if the One, eternal Shiva exists everywhere, how can there be the ideas of non-lost and lost?
15. If that which is perceived and that which is not perceived are both false, if the born and the unborn are both false, if the One eternal Shiva exists everywhere, how can there be the imperishable and perishable?
16. If there is the disappearance of the distinction of male and not-male, if there is the disappearance of female and not-female, if the one, eternal Shiva exists everywhere, how can there be the feeling of wonder and no-wonder?
17. If the supreme is free from delusion and misery if the supreme is free from doubt and grief, if the One eternal, Shiva exists everywhere, how can there be ''I'' and ''mine.''
18. If there is indeed the destruction of moral action and non-moral action, if there is the destruction of bondage and non-bondage, how can there be the feeling of pain and non-pain?
19. If there are no distinctions of the sacrificer and the sacrifice, if there are no distinctions of the sacrificial fire and oblation, if the one, eternal Shiva is what exists everywhere, how can there be fruition of work?
20. If there is absolute freedom from grief and grieflessness, if there is freedom from pride and want of pride, if the one eternal Shiva is what exists everywhere, how can there be the idea of attachment and non-attachment?
21. If there are no changes of illusion and non-illusion, if there is no affection through desire and, non-desire, if the one, eternal, Shiva is what exists everywhere, how can there be the notions of non-discrimination and discrimination?
22. There never exists ''you'' and ''I''; the discrimination of race, and family is all untrue. I alone am the Shiva who is the highest truth. It such is the case to whom and how shall I proffer salutation?
23. The discrimination of teacher and taught is gone forever; the discrimination of teaching is also gone. I alone am the Shiva who is the highest truth. How and to whom shall I proffer my salutations?
24. There is no concocted distinction of body, there is no concocted differentiation of the world. If I alone am the Shiva who is the highest truth, how and to whom should I proffer my salutations?
25. Being endowed with passion or being devoid of it does never exist for me; I am neither spotless nor changeless; I alone am the Shiva who is the highest truth; how and to whom shall I proffer my salutations?”
26. The changes of embodied and disembodied states do not exist for me; falsehood and truth do not exist for me; I alone am the Shiva who is the highest truth; how and to whom shall I proffer my salutations?
27. Wherever one perceives that nothing, nothing indeed ever exists, there the restrictions of metre do not exist. The supreme Avadhuta merged in the universal essence, and purified by thought utters the truth.
Thus ends the sixth chapter in the discourse between Dattatreya and Kartikeya entitled the definition of moksha.