The Hastamalaka

Translated by E.B. Cowell

1. 'Who art thou, my child, and whose, and whither goest thou? What is thy name, and whence art thou come? Tell me all this clearly to gladden me,--thou fillest my heart with gladness.'

2. 'I am not a man nor a god nor a demi-god, no Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaišya, nor Šudra; no student, nor householder, nor anchorite, nor religious mendicant; innate Knowledge am I.

3. 'That which is the cause of the action of mind, eye, and the rest, as the sun is the cause of the movements of living beings, but which itself is void of all conditioning disguises, like the infinite ether,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.

4. 'That which being itself one, unchangeable, and essentially eternal knowledge (as fire is essentially heat), is the substratum which bears, as they act, the mind, eye, and the rest,--which are mere Ignorance,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.

5. 'The reflection of the face seen in the mirror is nothing in itself as separated from the face, so is the personal soul in itself nothing, the reflection of Intelligence on the internal organ,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.

6. 'As the reflection vanishes when the mirror is not, and the face remains alone, apart from all delusion, so that Soul which remains without a reflection when the understanding is not,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.

7. 'That which abiding aloof from mind, eye, and the rest, is itself mind, eye, and the rest to mind, eye, and the rest, and whose nature mind, eye, and the rest cannot reach,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.

8. 'That which, being one, shines forth self-manifested, possessing pure intelligence, and itself essential Iight, and which yet appears as though variously modified in various internal organs, as the one sun shines reflected in the water of different vessels--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.

9. 'As the sun, illumining countless eyes, illumines at the Same moment the object to each, so that Soul, the one intelligence, which illumines countless internal organs,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.

10. 'As the bodily sense illumined by the sun grasps the form of the object, but when unillumined grasps it not, so that by which the one sun must be itself illumined to illumine the sense,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.

11. 'As the one sun seems many in the agitated waters, and even when reflected in still waters must be yet recognized as really separate, so that which, though really one, seems many in the restless internal organs,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.

12. 'As he whose eye is covered with a cloud thinks in his delusion that the sun is clouded and has lost its light, so that soul which seems bound to him whose mind's eye is blind,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.

13 'That which being in itself one, is strung through all things and with which nothing ever yet comes in contact, and which, like the ether, is always pure and uncontaminated in its nature,--that Soul, essentially eternal perception, am I.

14. 'As the pure crystals appear different by the presence of a disguiser, so thou too appearest different by the diversity of individual minds; as the moonbeams appear to be tremulous in the water, so thou too, O Vish.nu, appearest to flicker in our world!'