As far as the experience of the fruits of one’s previous actions is concerned, the knower and the non-knower may appear to be alike; only, the former bears it with patience and fortitude till the time of its exhaustion, while the latter worries himself and is excited over his experiences in life. This may be illustrated by the case of two travellers on a journey, equally fatigued, the one knowing that his destination is not far off and thus going on quicker with patience and confidence, and the other who does not know the distance yet to be covered feels discouraged and lingers on longer on the way. The conviction that there is a desirer and there is a desire for objects should be melted down in the greater conviction that Brahman is the all. Thus, the pains caused by unfulfilled desires cease, like the flames of a lamp without oil. When we witness the performance of a magician, we know very well that it is unreal, in spite of our seeing it as if physically real. We rather laugh at the performance and rejoice at the tricks of the performer and do not get emotionally disturbed or intellectually befooled by the performance. Similarly, a knower of Reality does not seek enjoyment even in objects apparently pleasing. He is convinced of their absence in the form in which they appear, their impermanence and unsubstantiality, and gives up attachment to them. Material wealth of any kind is not a source of joy, truly speaking. It is attended with anxiety and worry, in earning it, in maintaining it, in losing it, and even in spending it. One cannot expect peace of mind through possession of wealth. So are the longings for name, fame and power and other joys of an emotional nature and egoistic in their essential make-up. Who will drink poison even if hungry for days together? Much less will be the desire of one who is already satisfied with the best of foods. True seekers of liberation are satisfied even with obtaining the minimum needs of life and do not ask for large possessions, for desire is never extinguished by the fulfilment of it. It is only the unenlightened one that is not satisfied even with endless enjoyments in this world. It is the wisdom of the knower to convert the world into a help in his progress towards salvation, instead of imagining that it is an object of enjoyment, because in this creation everything is connected to everything else and nothing is subsidiary to or dependent upon another except as imagination under states of delusion of mind.

One undergoes suffering by Prarabdha-Karma, which is accumulated either intentionally or unintentionally, or in the interest of other people and other things. Unintentional suffering is caused by operations of Nature, such as heat and cold, hunger and thirst, and the urges of the natural instincts of the human being. The intentional type consists of the sorrows that come upon oneself in the wake of deliberate misdeeds like theft, deceit and wilful injury caused to others, or by neglecting the laws of one’s own physical and mental health. Suffering caused by taking interest in others, whether willing or unwilling to do the thing, is instanced by such events as receiving a sun-stroke while walking in the hot sun to escort a guest to his destination, and such other actions which may bring a painful reaction even if they are performed with good intentions to help others in any way.

The way in which desires attain fulfilment in a knower is a little difficult to understand, since they defy the normal laws of their operation. There is such a thing as unattached enjoyment even of objects indulged in, either for the reduction of the intensity of desire in a harmless manner by giving it its demand in a way not injurious either to oneself or to others, or to exhaust the fruit yielded by the impressions of previous actions. In this case, the enjoyment of the knower is to be attributed not so much to a personal desire as to the impersonal will that operates behind his apparent personality. But these enjoyments cannot bind him, as roasted grains have no potency to shoot up into plants. Likewise, the desires of a knower are no more real desires, as they do not arise from his personality but are volitions directed by a more impersonal purpose and motivation.

The world is to be contemplated upon as a kingdom seen in a dream. It is a reality at the time of its experience but vanishes instantaneously on one’s rising to wakefulness. The waking world of space, time, objects and relations is similarly constituted as a manifestation of the Cosmic Mind, thus having no real objectivity in itself. Profound meditation in this way will lessen the intensity of a longing and attachment in respect of persons and things. It is the function of knowledge to demonstrate the unreality of the world and it is the nature of Prarabdha-Karma to yield experiences of the world. Thus, knowledge and fructifying Karma are not opposed to each other, since they are relevant to different aims. The Prarabdha may continue to operate in spite of the knowledge of the unreality of all things, but such knowledge sets at naught the stinging character of these pleasures and pains. Since Prarabdha-Karma does not create an idea of the reality of things, it is not opposed to true knowledge. Things do not disappear in knowledge but only reveal their true nature. Even in dream, objects which do not really exist cause pleasure and pain to the experiencer. This would suggest that the reality of objects is not necessarily a criterion for experiencing them as such; the only thing needed for experiencing is a placement of the subject and the object of experience on a par, i.e., in the same degree of reality. In the case of the knower, the experience of pleasure and pain is to some extent like the ones experienced by an audience before a dramatic enactment or a magical performance, the absence of reality in which is known to the experiencer even when experiencing them. For the same reason, the waking world does not establish its reality merely by the fact of its being experienced. This analysis of the nature of desire in an ordinary sense and an extraordinary sense would show that the ethical laws of empirical life do not apply to the realm of transcendent experience.

Due to ignorance of one’s relation to the object of experience, one mistakes it for an instrument of enjoyment or satisfaction. By erroneously transferring changeful properties on itself, the Jiva regards its enjoyership as real, and never wants to abandon the objects which it considers as real. We know too well that things are not loved for their sake, but with a motive behind, a purpose to be fulfilled, other than the things concerned, this purpose being inner satisfaction, a pleasure felt within. And that becomes an object of abhorrence, which stands in the way of the achievement of this end, the one motive behind all affection and love being the selfish maintenance of a condition of inner delight. The enjoyer of objects is, therefore, a combination of the Kutastha-consciousness and the so-called Chidabhasa, though this is permissible from our practical standards, and has no meaning in itself.

One should not attach oneself too much to objects, as the main point behind such attachment is not the love of objects, but the releasing of the inner tension caused by desire for them. Let all love be, therefore, centered in the Atman universal, which is the finale and end of all aspirations. Let our affection for the Supreme Being become as firm as that the ignorant persons have towards sense-objects. By this method, the mind can be gradually weaned away from sense-enjoyments, and all love directed to the Absolute within us. As the foolish one is extremely vigilant about obtaining objects of sense, such as gold and sex, a wise man should be vigilant in his engagement in the Atman. As one who wishes to achieve success in this world studies logic, literature, and so on, let the true aspirant engage himself in the study of the Atman within. As one who wants to attain heaven and superhuman powers (Siddhis), etc., practises recitation of Mantras and performs sacrifices, with great faith, let intense faith in the Supreme Reality be developed by one aspiring for liberation. As Yogins practise concentration of mind, undergoing great hardships, for the sake of attaining higher perfections, let the aspirant engage himself in the liberation of his self. As the powers of the practicants increase by protracted efforts, the intensity of the discrimination of the aspirant after freedom increases by continued endeavour. By knowing the true nature of the enjoyer through the process of reasoning, as detailed above, the detached nature of the Atman in all the states is realised. What is visible in the various states of experience is in that particular state alone, and does not follow the perceiving consciousness in the other states. Experiences of different lives, and of different states even in one life, differ from one another, but the Consciousness is everywhere one and immutable. One should meditate, therefore, that one’s Consciousness is the same as Brahman, which is the illuminator of the different states of experience, and by this knowledge one gets liberated. There cannot be rebirth for a person who knows that there is only one Consciousness pervading all things, dissociated from all objective conditions. It should be affirmed always that one is the Witness, different from whatever is regarded as the enjoyer, enjoyment, or the enjoyed, in all the three states of experience. On analysis, it thus becomes clear that what we consider usually as the enjoyer is only the individual self that goes by the name of Chidabhasa, or the Vijnanamaya. Again, it is not real in itself, because it is within the vast world of relativities, which is transcended in Brahman. It has a beginning and an end, and, therefore, it is to be distinguished from the real.

Having attained this knowledge, the Chidabhasa never, again, desires enjoyment, because its spiritual insight is a preparation for its own self-annihilation, just as no one who is about to die wishes to get his marriage performed at that time. The Chidabhasa, then, becomes ashamed even to regard itself as enjoyer, as before, and, as a person whose nose is cut off would be unwilling to come before the public, it undergoes the Prarabdha silently, without complaining of suffering, knowing well that it has only to wait till the exhaustion of the Prarabdha. When it does not attribute enjoyership even to itself in that state of knowledge, where comes the doubt that it will attribute it to the Kutastha-Atman? The scripture, therefore, disregards the erroneous concept that there is any such thing as a real enjoyer, and interrogates as to how there can be association of oneself with the conditions of the body when there is such enlightenment.

The three bodies have three types of transformation, which may be regarded as their conditions, or fevers. The disbalance of the humours, and the various diseases cropping up as a result of this condition, the foul smell, the ugly nature and subjection to burns, wounds etc., are the sufferings or fevers of the physical body. Desire, anger and such other passions, the pleasure of possession and the displeasure caused by non-possession of what is longed for, are the fevers of the subtle body. The ignorance by which one knows not either oneself or others, in which there is a negation of oneself as it were, and which is the seed of future troubles in the form of various experiences, is the fever of the causal body. These are the natural, intrinsic conditions of the three bodies of the Jiva. They, rather, form the bodies themselves, for the latter do not exist independently of these conditions. These are not the outward qualities, or even inherent attributes, but the essential constituents of the bodies. As there is no cloth when its threads are pulled out, no blanket when its hairs are removed, no earthen vessel when the earth is removed from it, so there is no body when it is divested of its various transformations, or fevers. The Chidabhasa by itself is not subject to these sufferings of the bodies, it being essentially of the nature of intelligence or light, but by false association it regards all these conditions as its own. The reality of the witnessing Atman is transferred to the conditions of the body, and they are all regarded as real by this transference of property. Subsequently, they are considered as part of the Chidabhasa itself. When the body suffers, the Chidabhasa feels that it is itself suffering the conditions, as a family man would suffer the situations of the members of his family by attachment to them.

When discrimination dawns, by which the Chidabhasa casts off its delusions, it does not regard even its own personality as anything meaningful, and engages itself in continuous meditation on the Sakshin, or the Witnessing Atman, and does not again subject itself to the various processes of the body. As a person would run away from a piece of rope, mistaking it for a snake, but when he realises that it is only a piece of rope he feels sorry for his act of having run away from it, the Chidabhasa repents for its having attributed the Kutastha-Atman falsely with all the undesirable attributes belonging to the world, and, as if begging pardon from the Kutastha for its past misdeeds, it engages itself in profound meditation on the latter. To expiate the sins of the past in the form of wrong thoughts and wrong deeds, it performs meditation on the Absolute. The Chidabhasa does not again make friendship with the changes of the body, as a holy person would not mix with infidels, having performed penance for all the impurities that he might have come in contact with due to association with them previously. As a prince who is about to be enthroned, learns the art of administration from his father, with a desire to become an able king later, the Chidabhasa voluntarily undergoes inner discipline by spiritual meditation, with the intention of becoming Brahman in the end. He who knows Brahman becomes Brahman, because Brahman is universal, and hence its knowledge is the same as its existence. As persons desiring to attain luminous bodies in heaven offer themselves in certain holy fires, the Chidabhasa wishes to abolish its own individuality and shine as the Atman, by practising meditation on IT. As the body is visible in fire for the time being, before one’s attainment of the celestial regions, the Prarabdha of the Chidabhasa continues for a period, till it is exhausted, though, in the end, the attainment of Brahman is ensured. When a person mistakenly sees a snake in a rope, he fears and trembles, but on realising that it is a rope, his confusion is over, though the trembling continues for a few minutes. Not only that; when he comes back and sees the rope, it will, again, look like a snake, though he has now a clear knowledge about it. Likewise, the Prarabdha of a Jnanin ceases gradually, and not abruptly, but during the time of occasional contact with objects, it is likely that he may feel he is a human being, and may see the world, again, as it was before. By this casual perception of the world, the knowledge of the liberated one, the Jivanmukta, is not affected in any way, because Jivanmukti is not like a ritual that is to be performed with minute details of discipline, but is a natural state of being which is known to be there spontaneously without any particular effort or imposed rule.