yadi tatpadamāpto ‘si kadācit kālaparyayāt tadahaṁbhāvanārūpe na maṅkttavyaṁ tvayā punaḥ (5)
VASISṬHA continued:
That is not considered action, O Rāma, which with an unattached mind you perform merely with the organs of action. The delight derived from sensual experience is fleeting. A repetition of that experience does not afford a repetition of the same delight. Who but a fool will entertain desire for such a momentary joy? Moreover, an object gives you pleasure only when it is desired. So the pleasure belongs to the desire — hence give up desire.
If in the course of time you attain the experience of that (the self), do not store it in your mind as a memory or ego-sense to be revived as desire once again. For when you rest on the pinnacle of self-knowledge it is unwise to fall into the pit of ego-sense again. Let hopes cease and let notions vanish, let the mind reach the state of no-mind, while you live unattached. You are bound only when you are ignorant. You will not be bound if you have self-knowledge. Hence, strive by every means to remain vigilant in self-knowledge.
When you do not engage yourself in sense-experiences and also when you experience whatever comes to you unsought, you are in a state of equanimity and purity, free from latent tendencies or memories. In such a state, like the sky, you will not be tainted even by a thousand distractions. When knower, known and knowledge merge in the one self, the pure experiencer does not once again generate a division within.
With the slightest movement in the mind (when the mind blinks) the saṁsāra (world-appearance) arises and ceases. Make the mind unwinking (free from movement of thought) by the restraint of the prāṇa and also the latent tendencies (vāsanā). By the movement (blinking) of prāṇa, the saṁsāra arises and ceases; by diligent practice make the prāṇa free from such movement. By the rise and cessation of foolishness (ignorance), self-binding action arises and ceases; restrain it by means of self-discipline and the instructions of the preceptor and the scriptures.
This world-illusion has arisen because of the movement of thought in the mind; when that ceases the illusion will cease, too, and the mind becomes no-mind. This can also be achieved by the restraint of prāṇa. That is the supreme state. The bliss that is experienced in a state of no-mind, that bliss which is uncaused, is not found even in the highest heaven. In fact, that bliss is inexpressible and indescribable and should not even be called happiness! The mind of the knower of truth is no-mind: it is pure satva. After living with such no-mind for some time, there arises the state known as turiya-atīta (the state beyond the transcendental, or the turiya state).