12. ᾱtmᾱnaṁ ced vijᾱnīyᾱd ayam asmīti pῡruṣaḥ
    kiṁ icchan, kasya kᾱmᾱya śarīram anusaṁjvaret.

You will not again enter into embodiment and take birth if the proper aim of life has been properly comprehended, if the goal of life is clear to the mind. Most people suffer on account of lack of understanding of the aim of life. The purpose is missed always. Whatever be the effort on your part, the aim cannot be kept before the mental eye, always. It cannot be kept throughout the day before one's eye. It is possible, perhaps, with tremendous energy, to contemplate on it for a few minutes, but immediately it slips from the mind. Once this true 'Selfhood of Reality is known and realised as inseparable from your own being' - ayam asmīti, as the Eternal Being, Puruṣha, then you will not toil unnecessarily, not desire fruitlessly, and therefore there would be no pressure exerted on your soul to take a fresh birth, as you will no longer create any binding Karma.

We have been studying again and again, in various verses here, that birth is the cause of suffering, and that birth is caused by desire which has been directed wrongly, outwardly to non-Self, to things of sense, and to the fulfilment of the senses. 'If this misdirected desire were not there, why would there be any kind of endeavour? If the Ātman is known, if the Self is recognised in every object, then the object ceases to be an object.' You do not say 'the self of an object', because that epithet cannot apply when the true recognition of the Self is made. Ātmᾱnaṁ ced vijᾱnīyᾱd: If the Self is known as It is in its own essential nature, which means to say, 'Ayam Asmīti, non-separate is your being from this Selfhood' - how can you isolate your Selfhood from your own being? You know the connection between the two. There is not even a connection; it is not a relation; it is just identity. So, if this identity of Self which you feel with your own being is to be recognised in a similar manner, in a similar intensity in respect of other things also, there would be a sudden illumination of what you call Universal Selfhood. This is liberation; and then, there is no further embodiment.

13. yasyᾱnuvittaḥ pratibuddha ᾱtmᾱsmin saṁdehye gahane praviṣṭaḥ,
    sa viśva-kṛt, sa hi sarvasya kartᾱ, tasya lokaḥ sa u loka eva.

'One who has awakened himself to this knowledge, who has risen to the consciousness of his pristine nature, freed from this entanglement of the body, freed from this dangerous embodiment called the physical tabernacle, becomes a friend of all things. He becomes not merely that, but a viśva-kṛt - a person capable of effecting anything, not merely by thought or action, but by mere being. He becomes a maker of all things, a performer of so-called miracles, a supreme performer.' Sometimes one with such an achievement is called Maha-kartā. He is a great doer. There is nothing which he cannot do, and so he is called Maha-kartā. He is also called Maha-tyāgi - 'there is nothing which he cannot renounce'. And there is nothing that he cannot enjoy, so he is called Maha-bhogtā. He is a 'supreme enjoyer', a 'supreme renouncer', and a 'supreme doer'. These are the three great characteristics of a realised soul. 'He becomes commensurate with the Reality of the universe' - sa viśva-kṛt. And he becomes a 'wonder maker, a wonder worker' - sarvasya kartā. The world becomes his. He does not long for things; he does not crave for the things of the world, and he does not have any kind of external relationship with the world, even as he has no relationship with his own self. He does not have to contact himself for getting anything from himself. He need not have to speak to himself; he need not have to exert in respect of himself, because he knows the identity of his being with his Self. Such is the attitude he will have, incomprehensible though it be, in respect of things outside. The world becomes his, in the same sense as your body becomes yours. You can lift your finger without anyone's help because it is you. Such is the work that he can do through the things of the world. 'He becomes united with the being of the various things in the world' - sarvasya kartā, tasya lokaḥ.

It is not merely that the world becomes his. Sa u loka eva: 'He is the world itself.' The reason why he is capable of working spontaneously in the world is because the world is not outside him. It is only a name that is given to the phenomenon of his own being. It is an expanse of his own self, and so it is not a work that he does in the world. It is a work that is going on spontaneously within himself. It is not someone doing something somewhere. It is not like that. It is a non-doing of anything anywhere. It is just a spontaneous experience of the expanse of being, which outwardly appears to be an activity of a person in the world outside, but inwardly or rather universally it is not activity; it is not a thought; it is not an achievement; it is not something that is moved; it is a mere experience. This is the consequence of Self-knowledge, namely, the realisation of the Absoluteness of Being.

14. ihaiva santo'tha vidmas tad vayam, na cet avedir mahatī vinaṣṭiḥ.
    ye tad viduḥ, amṛtᾱs te bhavanti, athetare duḥkham evᾱpiyanti.

In this very body you can realise this. You need not quit the body for the purpose of this realisation, because the body itself is not the bondage. It is your attitude towards the body that is the real bondage. The idea that it is an embodiment, or a conglomeration, or a complex, or a spatio-temporal form which is connected with us personally is what is the bondage. The segregation of this body from other bodies, and the feeling of your consciousness being inside this little location all alone, is what is called bondage. The body is not the bondage. It is the connection of the consciousness with the body in an erroneous manner that is bondage. So, in this very body itself we can know it. The body can become a temple instead of becoming a prison. The same building can be a prison or a temple, according to your viewpoint about it or the work that you perform in it. There is hardly any external difference between a jail and a church. They are identical from the point of view of structure, made of the same brick and mortar. But the function, the thought, and the attitude are different.

So, in this very body, this self can be awakened provided it (the body) is harnessed as an instrument for effort towards Self-realisation instead of an instrument for the satisfaction of the senses. Ihaiva santo'tha vidmas tad vayam, na cet avedir mahatī vinaṣṭiḥ: Life is meant for this purpose only. This body has been given to us to be utilised as a noble vehicle for movement towards God, towards the Supreme Being, towards liberation. This vehicle, this instrument, is not intended for any mischief. It is not meant for any kind of ulterior purpose, action or motive. And if it is not used for the purpose for which it is intended; if this body, if this mind, if this psychophysical complex is misused, abused and not used for the purpose of the realisation of the Self; if you are not going to recognise this life on earth as a link in the chain of the development of the soul to God; if you are not able to recognise that you are a pilgrim in this journey; if you think that this world is the all; if you think that here is the halting place and there is no movement further; if you are under a wrong impression that this is a world of enjoyment and not a world of duty and activity; if you think that there is no hereafter and everything is complete here, and this body is the all, this world is the all, the things are the all; if this is your notion, then there is really a great loss - mahatī vinaṣṭiḥ. If the purpose of life is not realised in this birth, then we may well say that life has been wasted. If the life that has been given to us here through this body is not to be put to proper use, verily we may say that it has been misused and put to wrong use; then great is the loss. You have only wasted your time. It is a waste of time because it has not been used for a higher step in the progress towards God. If it has been used for the proper purpose for attaining God, life has been lived properly. Then only its purpose has been fulfilled; otherwise, its purpose has not be fulfilled. Na cet avedir mahatī vinaṣṭiḥ:: 'Great is the loss incurred by that person who has misused this instrument of the body for purposes other than Sadhana for Self-realisation.'

Ye tad viduḥ, amṛtᾱs te bhavanti:  'Immortality is what you are going to attain if this Truth is known to you.' Athetare duḥkham evᾱpiyanti: 'If this is not known by you, sorrow is the consequence.' You have to suffer, suffer not merely here, but also hereafter. So, there will be a long chain of sorrows, one following the other. And, what is the cause? The cause is a misapprehension of all values. Hence it is essential for us to struggle hard to get proper a perspective of life. Our vision of life should be correct. If our vision is not correct, action also will not be correct, because thought precedes action. You cannot act rightly unless you think rightly. If the thought is wrong, how can the action be correct? Hence a proper vision of life, a proper perspective of life, is the first and foremost duty of a human being. The whole thing must be clear to the mind. Then you will know what is your duty, with this vision before you. If you know what is before you, you can also know how to conduct yourself in respect of it. So, knowledge precedes action. It is useless to engage oneself in activity under the impulsion of wrong notions and wrong knowledge, for naught but sorrow will result - duḥkham evᾱpiyanti.

15. yadaitam anupaśyati ᾱtmᾱnaṁ devam añjasᾱ, īśᾱnaṁ bhῡta-bhavyasya, na tato vijugupsate.

This great life that you are aspiring for is not far off. It is not in a distant space. It can be visualised within yourself. It is an immediate presence to you. It is not an object which can be contacted through the senses, or the mind, or the intellect. It is not visualised as you visualise objects of sense. Such words are inapplicable here. Language cannot express the truth of this situation. It is not a perception; it is not an inference; it is not a vision in the ordinary sense. It is an enlightenment from within in respect of what is within you, namely, what you yourself are. 'And the moment this awakening takes place, you begin to visualise that which was past and future at one stroke.' Just as a miraculous surprise is sprung upon you, as it were, when you wake up from a tedious dream, you will be sprung a surprise when you wake up from this dream of the world. Suppose you are absorbed in a very painful dream, and seem to be undergoing much hardship in this dream, and then you wake up into the consciousness of this world which is true for you, which is totally different from the world of suffering in which you were in dream; what would that wonderful feeling be like? You will feel a sense of tremendous freedom and say, 'Oh, the tedious suffering has gone.' Such would be the great wonderment of the realised soul when this mind, which is limited to the mere hair's breadth of the present, cut off from the past and the future, is suddenly awakened to a blend of consciousness which knows all the past and future at one stroke - īśᾱnaṁ bhῡta-bhavyasya. You become at once one with all things in a similar manner as when you have awakened to a reality quite different from the hazy notions that you have had in dream. Then what happens? Na tato vijugupsate: 'You have nothing to ask for; you have nothing to fear from. Neither do you turn away from anything, nor do you ask for anything.' Everything is all right. Everything looks all right because everything was all right and shall be all right. It did not look all right in the middle on account of the maladjustment of your mind with the arrangement of things in the world. Your mind was turned out of tune from the universal arrangement of creation, and so you saw chaos everywhere, confusion everywhere, ugliness everywhere, error everywhere, injustice everywhere, suffering everywhere, and experienced death and rebirth. All this is the experience of that mind which has become out of tune with Reality. It is not that the mind is going to bring about a transformation of the nature of things, but what happens is a proper attunement or a proper coming in harmony of the mind with the arrangement of things already there. When God created the world, He never made a mistake. It is not true that we are going to improve upon His creation. Well, no one will really say that he is wiser than God. But what happens is that you become awakened to the consciousness of the harmony that exists between your way of thinking and the Will of God. Now everything looks chaotic because of the isolation of your will from the Divine Will, but when there is harmony of your will with the Divine Will, perfection and illumination results. Then in that grand condition you ask for nothing and 'shrink from nothing' - na tato vijugupsate.