6. Let people quote the Scriptures and sacrifice to the gods, let
them perform rituals and worship the deities, but there is no Liberation
without the realisation of one’s identity with the Atman, no, not even
in the lifetime of a hundred Brahmas put together.
7. There is no hope of immortality by means of riches – such indeed
is the declaration of the Vedas. Hence it is clear that works cannot be
the cause of Liberation.
8. Therefore the man of learning should strive his best for
Liberation, having renounced his desire for pleasures from external
objects, duly approaching a good and generous preceptor, and fixing his
mind on the truth inculcated by him.
9. Having attained the Yogarudha state, one should recover oneself,
immersed in the sea of birth and death by means of devotion to right
discrimination.
10. Let the wise and erudite man, having commenced the practice of
the realisation of the Atman give up all works and try to cut loose the
bonds of birth and death.
By Adi Sankaracharya, 788-820 CE,
Translated by Swami Madhavanand
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