Therefore, let the pure-hearted learn to drop all activities; as activities are contrary to knowledge, their combination with knowledge is not possible. Quieting all activities of the senses and mind perceptions, one should always be engaged in contemplation upon the Self.
As long as one identifies with one’s body as a result of the play of Maya, so long one must perform the sacred works prescribed by the Vedas. Thereafter, with the help of the sruti declarations of negation – “not this, not this” – one must learn to rise above one’s body identity and realize the Self – and then give up all work.
When the shining, direct knowledge of the Self – the destroyer of the difference between Paramatma and Jiva – arises in the heart of an individual, then alone Maya, the cause for the jiva’s samsara, disappears instantaneously, along with its effects, all misapprehensions.
श्रुतिप्रमाणाभिविनाशिता च सा कथं भविषत्यपि कार्यकारिणी । विज्ञानमात्रादमलाद्वितीयत- स्तस्मादविद्या न पुनर्भविष्यति ॥ १९॥
Once Maya, (ignorance) is totally destroyed by the process expounded in the sruti (the valid means of knowledge), how can she (Maya) even be capable of creating various delusory effects? Since the Self is absolute Knowledge, pure and nondual (and is realized by the wise one) avidya will therefore not rise again.
यदि स्म नष्टा न पुनः प्रसूयते कर्ताहमस्येति मतिः कथं भवेत् । तस्मात्स्वतन्त्रा न किमप्यपेक्षते विद्या विमोक्षाय विभाति केवला ॥ २०॥
If maya, once destroyed, cannot ever rise again, how can the idea “I am the doer of this Karma” ever rise for the realized person? Therefore, knowledge is independent and does not need anything else. By itself, it is capable of giving liberation.