6. The mind that is beset by the net of the vain desires of the world, is subject to repeated births, which are the sources of endless woes. (The world is a vale of tears, and worldlimindedness is the spring of misery).
7. He is reckoned as a miserable being, who thinks much of his person, and esteems his body, as the product of the good deserts of his past lives; and who accounts his foolish and blinded mind as a great gift to him. (Human life is usually esteemed as the best of all living beings; and the Sástra says “the human body is the best gain after millions of transmigrations in other forms”).
8. How can we expect the decrease of our distress, as long as the mind is the mistress of the body? It is upon the setting down of the mind, that the world appears to disappear before us. (As the setting sun hides the world from our sight).
9. Know the mind to be the root of all the miseries of life, and its desires as the sprouts of the forest of our calamities.
10. Ráma asked:—Who is it, Sir, whose mind is extinct, and what is the manner of this extinction; say also how its extinction is brought on, and what is the nature of its annihilation?
11. Vasishtha replied:—O support of Raghu’s race! I have told you before of the nature of the mind; and you will hear now, O best of inquirers! the manner of extinguishing its impulses.
12. Know that mind to be paralysed and dead, which is unmoved from its steadiness by pleasure and pain; and remains unshaken as a rock at the gentle breath of our breathing. (i.e. the man that lives and breathes, but moves not from his purposes).
13. Know also that mind, to be as dull as dead, which is devoid of the sense of its individuality from others; and which is not degraded from the loftiness of its universality, to the meanness of its personality.
14. Know that mind also, to be dead and cold, which is not moved by difficulties and dangers; nor excited by pride and giddiness, nor elated by festivity nor depressed by poverty and penury; and in short which does not lose its serene temperament at any reverse of fortune.
15. Know, gentle Ráma! this is what is meant by the death of the mind, and the numbness of the heart; and this is the inseparable property of living liberation (of those that are liberated in their lifetime).