53. It is the kalpa tree yielding all earthly fruitions as its fruits, which are incessantly borne aloft only to fall down with their juicy flavour of various tastes. 54. The high minded man that depends on that boundless spirit, and rests secure in its bosom, is verily called the wise and liberated in his life time. 55. He is the best of men, whose mind is freed from all desires and cravings; and who has found his rest from the thoughts of his fancied good and evil. He remains listless amidst all the cares and concerns of this life. CHAPTER LXXIX. DESCRIPTION OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE. Argument. The second method of suppressing the Mind by spiritual knowledge, being the Theory of self liberation. Ráma said:—Sir, as you have related to me the methods of suspending the mind to a dead lock, by means of yoga practices; I hope you will kindly tell me now, the manner in which it is brought to stand still, by means of perfect knowledge. 2. Vasishtha replied:—By perfect knowledge is meant the firm belief of a man, in the existence of one self manifest or Supreme Soul, that is without its beginning and end. This is what the wise mean by the term “full or perfect knowledge.” 3. Its fulness consists in viewing all these visible forms as these pots and these pictures _ghatapata_, and all these hundreds cries of beings, to be manifest in the fullness of that spirit and not distinct from it. 4. It is imperfect knowledge that causes our birth and pain, and perfect knowledge that liberates us from these; as it is our defective sight, which shows us the snake in the rope, while our complete view of it removes the error. 5. The knowledge which is free from imagination, and its belief of the objective, and relies only on its conscious subjectivity, leads only to the liberation of men, which nothing else can do. 6. The knowledge of the purely subjective, is identic with that of the supreme spirit; but this pureness being intermingled with the impure objective matter, is termed _avidyá_ or ignorance. 7. Consciousness itself is the thing it is conscious of (or in other words, knowledge is identic with the known; _i.e._ the subjective is the same with the objective), and there is no difference between them. The soul knows only itself as there is no other beside itself. (Its _parichinote_ is its subjective knowledge, and _sanchinote_ the objective and effect of _avidyá_ or ignorance). 8. “Seeing the soul alone in its true light in all the three worlds,” is equivalent to the expression “all this world is the soul itself” in the Sruti, and the knowledge of this truth constitutes the perfection of man. 9. The whole being the soul, why talk of an entity or a nullity; and what meaning can there be in bondage or liberation (which appertain to the same soul?)