SUKRA replied: I am on my way to another realm, O Bali: but I shall give you in a few words the very quintessence of wisdom. Consciousness alone exists, con- sciousness alone is all this, all this is filled with consciousness. I, you and all this world, are but consciousness. If you are humble and sincere you will gain every- thing from what I have said; if not, an attempt at further explanation will be like pouring oblations into a heap of ashes.
After Sukra left, BALI reflected thus: What my preceptor said to me was in- deed correct and appropriate. Surely, al! that is is consciousness and there is naught else. If consciousness did not recognise a mountain, would it exist as a mountain? Consciousness itself is all this. It is indeed on account of that consciousness that I am able to come into contact with the objects and experience them, not because of the body itself. Since consciousness exists one without a second, who is my friend and who is my enemy? Even hate and other such qualities are but modificctions of consciousness. Hence, again, there is neither hate nor attachment, neither mind nor its modifications — since the consciousness is infinite and absolutely pure, how can perversions arise in it. Consciousness is not its name, it is but a word! It has no name. 1 am the eternal subject free from all object and predicate. 1 am that con- sciousness in which the craving for experience has ceased. Movement of energy in one substance is neither loss nor gain. When consciousness alone is everything, thoughts or its expansions do not make that consciousness expand or contract. Hence, I shall continue to be active till | reach absolute quiescence in the self.
Having thus reflected, Bali, uttering the sacred word OM and contemplating its subtle significance, remained quiet. Freed from all doubts, from perception of objects and without division between thinker, thought and thinking (meditator, meditation and the object of meditation), with all intentions and concepts quietened, Bali remained firmly established in the supreme state with a mind in which all movement of thought had ceased, like a lamp in a windless place. Thus he lived for a considerable time.