Chapter XLIV - Contemplation of embodied and disembodied God

Hari said:—Having adored Brahman with Pavitra and other rites and meditated on him one becomes Hari. I will now describe the meditation of Brahman which destroys the weapon of Maya (illusion). The learned man, who recites the name of Brahman by words and mind, acquires the knowledge of self. He, who desires to acquire this knowledge, gains great knowledge.

Brahman is shorn of body, organs of sense, mind, intellect, vital principle and egoism. It is shorn of elements, Tanmatras (subtle particles), the gunas (qualities), birth and decay. It is manifest of itself, devoid of a form, eternally blissful, without any beginning, eternal, purified, intelligent, undecaying, existent, blissful, without second and eternal. [The state of mental realization). “I am Brahman, I exist in Brahman” is known as Samadhi (mental concentration). The soul is known as the charioteer, the body as the chariot and the organs of sense are known as the horses. The objects of sense are known by the latter. The soul is endued with mind and the organs of sense. Therefore the learned designate it as the enjoyer. He, who is endued with the discriminative knowledge of the external objects and mental perception, attains to the station of Brahman and is not born again. The man, whose charioteer is the discriminative knowledge, goes to the other side of the world by the help of mental abstraction and attains to the most exalted station of Vishnu. Not to hurt animals &c. is called Yama (restraint). Purification and other rites are called Niyama (religious observances). Padma and other postures are called Asana and the suppression of vital airs is called Pranayama. The withdrawal of organs from the objects of sense is called Jaya; the meditation on the Lord is called dhyana; the restraint of mental faculties is called Dharana. Although Brahman is without any forms still a worshipper should meditate on a form in the pericarp of his heart’s lotus as holding conch-shell, discus and club, bearing the mystic mark of Srivatsa and the Kaustava jem, adorned with a garland of forest flowers, as being eternal, pure, intelligent, ever existent, blissful and supreme, thinking “I am self, the impersonal and Absolute self, the Great Light.” Hari, having twenty four forms, situate on the Shalagrama stone and on the height of Dvaraka, is worthy of being adored and meditated on.

Having meditated on this form, lauded it and recited its name, a person, acquiring all the objects of his desire, becomes an etherial god, and shorn of desire, obtains emancipation.