12. No one can reach the best course of his life, without the tranquility of his mind; which is to be acquired by means of his own exertion, in getting rid of the fond objects of his desire. (The best course of life, is to live free from care, which is unattainable without subjection of our desires).
13. It is by means of destroying the appetites of the mind, by means of reason and knowledge of truth; that one can have his absolute dominion over it, without any change or rival in it. (The rival powers in the kingdom of the mind (manorájya), are the passions and the train of ignorance—moha).
14. The precepts of a preceptor, the instructions of the sástras, the efficacy of mantras, and the force of arguments, are all as trifles as straws, without that calmness of the mind, which can be gained by renunciation of our desires and by the knowledge of truth.
15. The One All and all-pervading quiescent Brahma can be known then only, when the desires of the mind are all cut off by the weapon of indifference to all worldly things.
16. All bodily pains of men are quite at an end, no sooner the mind is at rest, after the removal of mental anxieties by means of true knowledge.
17. Many persons turn their minds to unmindfulness, by too much trust in their exertions and imaginary expectations; and disregarding the power of destiny, which overrules all human efforts.
18. The mind being long practised in its highest duty, of the cultivation of divine knowledge, becomes extinct in the intellect, and is elevated to its higher state of intellectual form.
19. Join yourself to your intellectual or abstract thoughts at first, and then to your spiritual speculations. Being then master of your mind, contemplate on the nature of the Supreme soul.
20. Thus relying on your own exertion, and converting the sensible mind to its state of stoic insensibility, you can attain to that highest state of fixedness, which knows no decay nor destruction. (Spiritual bliss).
21. It is by your exertion and fixed attention, O Ráma! that you can correct the errors of your mind; as one gets over his wrong apprehension of taking one thing for another (such as his mistaking of the east for the west).