Then let reason, master of highest wisdom, take the unsullied ghee and filling with it the lamp of intelligence, set it securely on the stand of even-mindedness.

Next, drawing out the cotton of the superconscious state out of the boll of the three states of consciousness (viz., sattva, rajas and tamas), let him work it up and fashion it into a wick exquisite and sturdy.

In this manner let him light the splendid lamp, aglow with the knowledge of Brahma, by merely approaching which all the moths of vanity and other vices are consumed.

The constant awareness that “I am That (Brahma)” is the lamp’s most brilliant flame. In this way when the bliss of self-knowledge sheds its bright lustre, the error of duality, the root of worldly existence, is dispersed,

And the deep darkness of infatuation and the rest, that form the family of avidya (ignorance), disappear. Having thus found the light of self-realization, reason rests in the chamber of the heart, and so unties the knot.

The soul can hope to attain its end only in the event of reason untying the knot; but when, O king of birds, illusion finds that the knot is about to be disentangled, she creates many hindrances.

She sends forth, brother, innumerable elves and fairies (prosperity and success in their embodied forms) that tempt the reason to avarice. By artifice of force or fraud they get near and put out the light with the wind of their robes.