4.1
Brahman cannot be invoked or banished.
Brahman is formless, without source or seed.
What is this offering of flowers and leaves?
What is this meditation and chanting of mantras?
Are you enticing that which is beyond duality
and non-duality?
4.2
Brahman is not only free of ideas
about bondage and liberation, free of ideas
about immaculateness and stain,
free of ideas about unity and separateness –
Brahman is Ever-Free.
4.3
Some say the world is real.
Others say it is not reality.
I have no doubts or cares about either.
I am before and beyond such notions.
My nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.4
Stained or unstained, divided or whole,
different or same …
I am before and beyond such notions.
My nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.5
Concepts like ignorance and intelligence
do not occur to me. I am never conscious
of knowing Self. How can I say, “I am Awake,”
or “I am not Awake”?
I am before and beyond such notions.
My nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.6
Self is not virtuous or sinful, not bound or free.
Self is not unity or separateness.
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.7
I have no friends or enemies. I have no ideas
about superior and inferior, nor about neutrality.
How can I say, “This is good,” or “This is evil”?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.8
I am not the object of worship,
nor am I the devotee.
I have no teachings or practices to offer.
What can be said about No-Thing?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.9
There is not Here that pervades
or is pervaded. There is nothing Here
that is homeless or has home.
How can I say I am fullness or emptiness?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.10
Self has no cause, and causes no effect.
It does not understand
and cannot be understood.
How can I speak of it as being
perceptible or imperceptible?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.11
Self knows nothing and is not knowable.
Self does not divide or destroy,
nor can Self be divided or destroyed.
Dear child, how can I speak of Self
as having past or future?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.12
I have no senses, no mind,
no intellect, no knowledge.
I am neither with or without a body.
How can I speak about desire and dispassion?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.13
Self is not separate or superior.
It is forever whole and equal to itself.
How can I speak about difference
and sameness in Brahman?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.14
Discipline and self-restraint never occur to me,
nor do religious austerities and practices.
I have no senses to control or conquer.
How can I speak about triumph and defeat?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.15
I have no form, nor am I formless.
I have no beginning, no duration, no end.
Dear friend, how can I say I am strong or weak?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.16
Death and deathlessness,
poison and nectar, good and evil –
dear child, these do not arise in me.
How can I say I am pure or impure?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.17
I have never dreamed or awakened.
I do not meditate, practice devotions,
or do yoga postures.
For me there is no day or night, misery or bliss.
How can I speak about deep sleep
and transcendence?
4.18
Know that I am All and I am free of All.
Know that Maya is not of me,
nor is the absence of Maya.
How can I speak about
prescribed religious disciplines?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom …
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.19
Know that I am forever Brahman.
Know that I am forever unbound by concepts
like attainment and failure.
How can I speak about unity and ignorance?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.20
I am neither learned nor illiterate,
neither inarticulate nor eloquent.
I am free of silence and the absence of silence.
How can I speak about reason and doubt?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.21
I have no mother, no father, no family, no caste.
I know nothing of birth and death.
How can I speak about affection and loss?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.22
I am the ever-rising sun. Never am I not.
My effulgence is neither light nor dark,
nor the absence of light or darkness.
How can religious devotions apply to me?
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.23
Realize for certain that I am without origin.
Realize for certain that I am without division.
Realize for certain that I am
without the stain of Maya.
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.24
The wise ones give up on devotions and practices.
They give up all activity, bad and good,
and drink only the nectar of renunciation.
I am before and beyond such notions –
my nature is Absolute Freedom.
4.25
Where knowing cannot go,
how can there be knowledge?
Supremely pure and free,
absorbed in infinite bliss,
the Avadhuta spontaneously sings the song
of the Absolute Reality.