Thus glorified by means of the science of the Wise the-Lord-in-the-form-of-the-Sun was highly gratified. He said: Whichever Brahmana studies without break this science of the Wise never contracts any eye-disease. None is born blind in his family. Teaching this to eight Brahmanas one becomes perfect in this science. Whosoever knows this is magnified.

PART-II

1. Then verily Samkriti said to the Sun: Blessed One, teach me Brahma-vidya. The Sun told him: Samkriti, listen. I shall set forth the knowledge of Reality, so hard to come by; by which knowledge alone will you become liberated while living in the body.

2. All is one, unborn, tranquil, endless, certain, immutable. See Reality as Spirit; be tranquil and at ease.

3. (The adepts) know Yoga to be the non-knowing (of plurality), the spontaneous attrition of the (object-seeking) mind. Rooted in Yoga, perform actions, or, averse (to all actions), perform (them) not at all.

4. Aversion is felt everyday to inborn tendencies (to act); nevertheless, one tends to plunge into noble actions with gusto.

5-6. Always one hesitates as regards the instinctive actions of the unregenerate; one never refers to what may compromise others, but attends to their righteous deeds. One does gentle deeds that pain none; always dreads sin and avoids all forms of sense-gratification.

7. Such a one's speech is informed by affection and love; it is lovely and fit, with due regard to time and place.

8. With proper thought, act and speech, one waits upon the virtuous. Getting them from all conceivable sources, one studies the Shastras.

9-10(a). Then one attains the first stage of Yoga. Whoever entertains such thoughts as regards the crossing of transmigratory life is said to have attained a state of Yoga. The rest are said to be just 'noble' (arya).

 10(b)-11. Coming to the next stage of Yoga, called 'Analysis' (vichara), the sadhaka resorts to the foremost scholars, well-known for their serious interpretations of Sruti and Smriti, good conduct, fixed attention, contemplation and activities.

12. As a house-holder (knows) his homestead, (so), having mastered all that has to be learned, the sadhaka comes to know the categories, and the doctrines, vis-à-vis what has to be done and avoided.

13. As a snake sheds its Slough, so sheds he even a slight attachment to external objects when intensified by pride, conceit, intolerance, greed and delusion.

14. With a mind disciplined through devotion to the Shastras, teacher, and the company of the virtuous, he truthfully masters the entire body of knowledge including the secret doctrines.

15. Just as a lover repairs to a spotless bed of flowers, from the second, he (the sadhaka) proceeds to the third state styled Non-attachment.

16-17. Fixing his steady mind on the truthful import of the Shastras and busy with the recitation of spiritual texts proper to the hermitages of the ascetics, he expends his long life, seated on a bed of stone or a slab, diverting himself with ramblings in the forest, made beautiful by his placid mind.

18. As a result of his meritorious actions, the righteous (sadhaka) passes his time in the delights of detachment, repeatedly studying the positive Shastras.

19. One's perception of reality becomes clear only in due course. The enlightened one, reaching the third stage, experiences this for himself.

20. Non-attachment is of two kinds: listen to the distinction as it is being drawn. This non-attachment is of two-kinds; one general and the other, superior.

21. The general non-attachment is non-involvement in objects, (based on the perception) 'I am neither agent nor enjoyer, neither the sublater nor the sublated'.

22. 'Everything, be it pleasure or pain, is fashioned by prior deeds; or, everything is under the sway of the Lord. I do nothing in regard to it'.

 23. 'Enjoyments and non-enjoyments are dread diseases; possessions are great disasters. All contacts just promote separation. Sufferings are diseases of thoughts'.

24. 'Time is ceaselessly fashioning all things' – so the general non-attachment of (the sadhaka) who has grasped the import of (the major texts) consists in being averse to all things and in not dwelling on them mentally.

25-26. By cultivating this sequence (of stages), the superior non-attachment in the case of the magnanimous (sadhakas) supervenes. It is said to be silence, repose and quiescence. For speech and import have been flung far away in the light of the truth, 'I am no agent; the agent is God or my own prior actions'.

27. The first stage that occurs is sweet on account of the satisfaction and joy (that attend it). The sadhaka (puman) has just stepped into the sequence of states. The first is an ambrosial sprout.

28. The first stage is the internal, cleansed, birth-place of the other stages. Thence one attains the second and third stages.

29. Among these, the all-pervading third (stage) is superior. Here the sadhaka has outgrown all proneness to imagine (and get ensnared).

30. Those who reach the fourth (stage) after the dwindling of nescience through the exercises of the three stages look on all things with the same eye.

31. When non-duality is established and duality dissolved, those who have reached the fourth stage look upon the phenomenal world as a dream.

32. The first three states are said to be the waking state; the fourth is called the dream state. And the mind dissolves like the fragments of an autumnal cloud.

33. He who reaches the fifth stage survives but as bare being. Due to the dissolution of the mind in this stage the world-manifold does not present itself at all.

34. Reaching the fifth stage called 'deep sleep', the sadhaka remains as pure non-dual being, all particulars having completely vanished.

35. Having reached the fifth stage, one stays consolidated in deep sleep, joyful, inwardly awake, all dual appearances gone.

36. Looking inwards, even when attending to outer things, he appears always indrawn, being extremely exhausted.

37. Practicing in this fifth stage, free from all innate impulses, one reaches, as a matter of course, the sixth stage named 'the Fourth'.

38. Where there is neither the non-existent nor the existent, neither the 'I' nor the non-'I', with all analytic thinking gone, one stays alone, totally fearless, in non-duality.

39. Beyond knots, with all doubt vanquished, liberated in life, devoid of imaginations, though unextinguished yet extinguished, he is like a painted flame.

40. Having dwelt in the sixth stage, he shall reach the seventh. The state of disembodied liberation is called the seventh stage of Yoga.

41-42(a). This is the acme of all stages, beyond words, quiescent. Avoiding conformity with the ways of the world, and the ways of the body, avoiding conformity with Shastras, get rid of all superimpositions on the Self.

42(b). All that is (here), the vishva, the prajna, etc., is nothing but Om.

43. Because there is non-difference between import and expression, and because, as distinct from each other, neither of these two is known, the Vishva is just the letter 'a' and 'u' is said to be the Taijasa.

44. The Prajna is the letter 'm'. Thus know in order, discriminating with great effort, before Concentration (Samadhi) sets in.

45-46. In this due order the concrete and the subtle should all be dissolved in the spiritual Self and the spiritual Self (should be dissolved) perceiving 'I am the Om Vasudeva, ever pure, awake, free, existent, non-dual massed and supreme bliss'; because all this (objective world) is pain in the beginning, middle and end.

 47-48. Therefore, thou sinless one, renouncing everything, be devoted to Truth. Think: I am Brahman, solid Intelligence and Bliss, free from impurity, holy, lifted above mind and words, beyond the darkness of ignorance, beyond all appearances. This is the secret doctrine.

Om! May He protect us both together; may He nourish us both together;
May we work conjointly with great energy,
May our study be vigorous and effective;
May we not mutually dispute (or may we not hate any).
Om! Let there be Peace in me!
Let there be Peace in my environment!
Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me!

Here ends the Akshyupanishad belonging to the Krishna-Yajur-Veda.

Reference

 Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier. The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai. "Akshi Upanishad."