17. Divine knowledge is said in the sástras, to transcend the knowledge of all other things; and the transparency of the Divine person, surpasses the brightness of all objects, as the beauty of the female body excels the lustre of the brightest gems. (The personal grace of females, transcends the beauty of all their decorations).
18. The transcendental knowledge of the Deity, is not to be derived from the doctrine of the sástras, nor from the teachings of our preceptors; it cannot be had by means of our gifts and charities; nor by divine service and religious observances, can we ever know the unknowable One.
19. These and other acts and rites, are falsely said to be the causes of divine knowledge, which can never be attained by them; now attend to me, O Ráma, and I will tell you the way to your rest in the Supreme soul.
20. The study of the sástras, serves of course to purify the mind from vulgar errors and prejudices; but <it> is the want of desire or aversion to worldly enjoyments, that makes the mind look within itself, wherein it sees clearly the image of God shining in it.
21. This sástra stablishes right understanding in lieu of ignorance, and this right reasoning serves to drive away all gross errors from the mind at once.
22. The sástra or learning serves principally to cleanse the mirror of the mind, from its dross of errors at first, and then it purifies the person of its possessor, by the force of its doctrines. (So the sástra has the power of purifying both the body and mind of the learned man).
23. As the rising sun casts his image spontaneously, on the dark bosom of the ocean; so doth the luminary of sástra or learning, shed of its own accord the bright light of truth, in the minds of ignorant.
24. As the sun enlightens all objects, by his presence before them; so doth the light of learning illume the dark understandings of the illiterate, by its benign appearance therein.
25. In this manner there is an intimate relation, between the learning derived from the sástra, and the mind of the man that is desirous of his liberation; in as much as the sástra alone affords the knowledge of the otherwise unknowable One to our minds.
26. As the sight of the sun and the ocean, shows us the blue waters of the one, turning to a bright expanse by the rays of the other; so the instance of the sástra and its doctrines, shows the enlightenment of human intellect by means of the other.