before the dissolution of the body,

according to that knowledge he is fitted

for his rank in the Garden.

5 As in a mirror, so is He perceived by the heart;

as in a dream, so is the world of the departed;

as if in water, so are the unseen realms;

as if in light and shade, so are the ranks of the Garden.

The gradation up to the Unseen

6 The separate nature of the senses,

and that their arising and setting

are of things that come into being apart from himself:

the wise man recognizes, and sorrows not.

7 Higher than the senses is the mind;

above the mind is the true being;

over the true being is the great soul;

above the great is the Unseen.

8 Higher than the Unseen, however, is God,

all-encompassing and without likeness.

Knowing Him, a man is saved

and goes to life everlasting.

9 His form is not to be beheld.

No one soever sees Him with the eye.

He is perceived by the heart, by thought, by the mind.

They who know Him find life everlasting.

The discipline of restraining the lower activity

10 When the five senses cease together with the mind,

and the intellect stirs not,

that, they say, is the highest course.

11 This they consider as discipline:

the firm holding back of the senses.

Then one becomes undistracted.

Such discipline, truly, is the beginning and the end.

God incomprehensible except as existent

12 Not by speech, not by mind,

not by sight can He be apprehended.

How can He be comprehended

otherwise than by one's saying "He is"?

13 He can indeed be comprehended by the thought "He is,"

and by admitting the reality of both His nearness and His transcendence.

When He has been comprehended by the thought "He is,"

His reality manifests itself.

Renunciation of desires, the condition of salvation

14 When are released all

the desires that lodge in one's heart,

then a mortal is made safe from death.

Therein he reaches God.

15 When are cut all

the knots of the heart here on earth,

then a mortal is made safe from death.

Thus far is the instruction.

The passage of the soul

16 One path leads upward to the Garden, by which the righteous soul goes to its Lord;

other paths lead elsewhere for those who have chosen otherwise.

17 The soul is committed to God, who is near to each creature.

Him one should know as the Pure, the Everlasting;

yea, Him one should know as the Pure, the Everlasting.

The attainment of God's nearness

18 Then Naciketas, having received this knowledge

declared by Death, and the entire rule of discipline,

attained nearness to God and became free from passion, free from fear of death;

and so may any other who knows this in regard to the soul.