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THE CHIDAKASHA GITA
OF BHAGAWAN NITYANANDA OF GANESHPURI
Verses 126-150 With Commentary by Kedarji

  1. A selfish mind is not steady (firm). A subtle discrimination is steady. What is creation is peace. What is creation is “witnesshood.” What is creation is subtle discrimination. Subtle discrimination gives us health-giving contentment. Subtle discrimination is the seed of Mukti. Trickery (Yukti) is not superior to Shakti. Trickery is subject to Shakti. Trickery is the delusion of the mind. Shakti is from Atman. Subtle discrimination is the real Buddhi. Shakti truly so called is subtle discrimination.

Commentary: A selfish mind is subject to a sea of cravings and desires. Such a mind is completely under the influence of compulsion, being easily swayed due to its own fickleness. For this reason, the path of Yoga teaches us to have discernment which is the kind of subtle discrimination that allows you to operate from the outlook of Divine Consciousness. This requires a spiritual practice that includes Meditation so that the mind can be brought under the control of the Self. This Self is the inner Witness, the Shiva-Shakti principle that is both the cause and the effect. This God-principle is the power behind all manifestations of thought, including Trickery. When the mind is turned within, it loses its trickery and merges with the subtle discrimination of the Absolute. It becomes that.

  1. What you see with the physical eye, is the gross intellect. What you see outside is the gross intellect. What you see inside is not Hari. What is visible is not Shiva. What you see inside is not the universe. In Shiva is Hari; in Hari is not Shiva.

Commentary: What is seen in the physical realm of existence that we call this world is a perception created by Hari, Lord Vishnu, an energy aspect of the Absolute. What you see with the physical eye is perceived by your Buddhi, your individual intellect. This is the gross intellect. What is seen in Chidakasha, what is seen in the inner expanse of Supreme Consciousness, in the Heart, is Shiva, not Hari. Hari, the Lord Vishnu, is the sustainer of Maya, of what is perceived through the senses. This is our visible world. What is seen inside in Meditation is Chidakasha. This is not the physical Universe. It is the very Heart space of Shiva. Shiva is the cause of Hari, having created him. Hari is not the cause of Shiva.

  1. The subtle intellect is Buddhi or Jnana. The internal concentration is one pointed. The gross intellect is like a horse which is not controlled by reins. The intelligence which is acquired from others is not permanent. It is not Hari. It is not Shiva. That which is imparted by the guru is the subtle intelligence. It is never gross. The gross intelligence is bestial. He is not a man who does not return what he has received.

Commentary: The subtle intellect is God’s Will. This is Jnana or direct knowledge of the Self. When the individual Buddhi is merged in Supreme Consciousness, it is purified in the fire of Jnana, the direct experience of the Shiva-Shakti power. This is the energy substratum of all things perceived and unperceived. This Shiva-Shakti power then becomes the subtle intellect. This transformation occurs through one-pointed, internal concentration that is Meditation on the inner Self. The gross intellect is the impure Buddhi or individual will that is like a wild horse that cannot be controlled.

The will of the individual bound soul is absorbed in mundane knowledge learned from other bound souls. This knowledge is not permanent and cannot yield Liberation because it is born of the ignorance generated by lack of awareness of one’s true nature and the Unity of all people, places and things. It is transient, worldly knowledge only, spiritually bankrupt.

That intelligence that you acquire from keeping the company of a Siddha Guru is the subtle intelligence of the Self. It should not be confused with the gross intelligence experienced in worldly affairs and sense pleasures. Gross intelligence is bestial due to it being based on spiritual defects. Once you have experienced this Truth to the fullest, it is your responsibility to return God’s gift of direct knowledge and experience of the Self by sharing it with others.

  1. He who is ignorant of the true goal of life is a beast. This goal is desirelessness. He who is ignorant of this fact is not a man. Man who is the crown and culmination of God’s creation, must not be like a frog which sinks below water and rises above water repeatedly. This human life is not a comparison to that of the frog. This life cannot always be attained. When we have acquired it, we should make efforts to reach the goal of life. Meals cannot be had before cooking. Discrimination is the fire. Intelligence is the vessel. Mukti is the goal of life.

Commentary: True Man is a human being and a human being is that person (male or female) who is completely absorbed in God, being Liberated by his/her own spiritual practice and the Grace of the Guru. The goal of a human birth is Liberation from the bondage of ignorance that keeps God concealed. This is the goal of life. People who are ignorant of this fact are like beasts cast about at random in the survival game of the fittest.

The human form is the greatest treasure in Shiva’s Maya because it is only through the human form that one can know God and become Self-realized. This human form is the culmination of God’s creation. It is the penultimate position in the cycle of karmas, the cycle of birth and death.

It is not always possible to acquire a human body after death. Many times, your Karma at the moment of death dictates that you take a lower life form. For this reason, it is extremely important not to waste a lifetime in the human body immersed in worldly pleasures and sense pleasures. It’s important not to become a bogi who uses spiritual contact with the Self only to become better or greater at the game of worldliness.

Make the effort to reach the goal of God-realization while you have a body, and long before your death approaches. Most food has to be cooked before you can eat it. Likewise, your mind, ego, intellect and senses have to be cooked in the fire of Jnana, in the fire of instructed spiritual practice, before you can truly acquire Mukti. Mukti, Liberation, is the purpose and goal of life.

  1. One is the dwelling. One is the eternal dwelling (Mukti). That dwelling is OMKAR. That dwelling is formless, changeless, indivisible. Future is not happy. Today is the happy day. Tomorrow is not, day after is not. Nine o’clock, ten o’clock is not the time. Now is the time. The indivisible time you realize by discrimination is “the time.” The time that you spend forgetting the goal of life is beggarly.

Commentary: Purnaham Vimarsha, the state of constant rapture in the uninterrupted awareness of Shiva Consciousness is the dwelling place or home of all true human beings. This state is Mukti or Liberation. It is the constant, uninterrupted awareness of OM. This final state of Liberation is formless, changeless and indivisible. It is a state and experience of timelessness.

There is no happiness in living for the future. Your happiness is not in the future which does not exist. It is in the present moment. In the present moment, you can have an experience of your own Divinity. Right now, you can see God and become That.

So, perform the practices as instructed by a living Sadguru. Do so every day. Perform them now. Now is the time! Don’t put it off until nine o’clock or ten o’clock or tomorrow. Put both feet in the Guru’s house now. Remember God right now in this and every present moment! For, transformation can only occur in the present moment, that moment of choice in which you are fully present with your true nature.

Become that timelessness that is your own indweller! Forgetting this as the goal of your life makes you a beggar, exposing you to the elements of pain and pleasure, limiting desire and craving. In this way, you become limited and bound, confined to a prison of your own making. You should want what is greater than that.

  1. The seat of Mukti is “Gokul Nandan.” “Govardhana,” “Gokul.” The third eye is the “Gokul.” The internal eye is “Gokul.” It is Mathura. It is Vrindavana.

Commentary: The real place of pilgrimage is inside a human being. Your church is there, inside. The seat of Liberation is that Gokul Nandan, that temple and place of worship that is in Chidakasha, the triadic Heart of Shiva. All places of pilgrimage begin and end there, inside. Becoming absorbed in Shiva Consciousness is the internal eye. It is the real worship of God. Doing so, no other pilgrimage is needed.

  1. Look for the all pervading God in the head! Truly look at Him in the head! Hence enjoy the eternal bliss! See this creation in the heart.

Commentary: To experience God, the all-pervasive Lord, you first have to go inside your own being to that place where He dwells inside you. Look at Shiva-Shakti by becoming absorbed in the Heart Space, Chidakasha, in the head. This is the space where all of manifestation is reflected. This space is the threshold to the Sahasrar, that highest spiritual center. The direct knowledge and experience of this is revealed by a living Sadguru. Enjoy eternal Bliss by going to that place. Ride the train of Prana Shakti that takes you directly there! No lines, no waiting!

  1. Realization of OMKAR is the annihilation of the world. Realization of OMKAR is the destruction of the Manas. When honor and dishonor have become one to a man, he attains Ananda, eternal joy, exhaustless joy, real joy. Then all that appears becomes nothing but joy.

Commentary: When you attain Mukti (Deliverance or Liberation), that is OMKAR. This realization occurs when the mind is destroyed, when it dissolves in the Heart space in the Sahasrar. When this occurs there is no desire for pleasure or pain, no desire or compulsion towards honor or dishonor. This is a place of pure, boundless and endless Joy. From this state, one sees everything and everyone, everywhere as nothing but a Paradise of Joy, of Absolute Bliss. This Joy is indescribable and all-pervasive.

  1. “Shiva is from Kasi.” The heart space is Kasi. Manas is Kasi. Everything is Kasi. The eternal Atman is Kasi. What is Kasi is in the head. The ten Nadas (sound) are eternal. The subtle Kasi is the Nirvikalpa Kasi. What is Haridwar is the nine gates in the body. It is the heart space. It is the place of peace. Yajna (sacrifice) is the immortal Jnana (wisdom).

Commentary: One does not have to make a pilgrimage to Kashi (city in India that is considered the abode of Lord Shiva) to experience Shiva. One does not have to go to any of the great Shiva temples or caves to experience Shiva. One does not have to travel to Haridwar to bath in the waters there in order to experience God.

All these holy places of pilgrimage are contained inside you. The Atman, the Self, Shiva-Shakti, is inside you. What is the true Kashi temple is the Shiva Lingam in the Sahasrar (highest spiritual center located at a distance of 12 fingers above the head). The true place of worship, the real temple is that place where the ten Nadas (sound vibrations out of which Mantras form) and the nine gates (subtle spiritual energy centers in the body) all merge in Chidakasha. Direct knowledge and experience of this Heart space of Shiva in the Sahasrar is the real Yajna, the true ritual sacrifice.

  1. “Yukti” (skill) is like walking on foot. Shakti is that which enters the heart. Sanyasa is like going on a train. He who goes on foot is a wanderer. (Manas is fickle). The body is the train. The passenger in the train is Manas. If there are no passengers (Manas), the train will not move. Tickets will not be issued. People will not gather. Then there is neither the first class nor the second nor the third. Manas is the class of peace. The master of the chariot is Buddhi. The engine is the head. The nerves and the blood vessels are the screws. That which moves in the nerves and blood vessels is Vayu.

Commentary: The effort and struggle to perfect various Hatha Yoga postures and the effort to become perfect in knowledge of the scriptures is like walking to a place on foot when you can get a train to the same location in far less time. The train is Prana Shakti that travels inside the Sushumna Nadi.

True Sanyasa is the act of getting on this train and being carried to the Sahasrar, the ultimate and final destination of all travel. The mind is a passenger on this train of Prana Shakti. When it dissolves in this Prana, all distinctions and differences are destroyed and one experiences the pure Buddhi, the highest intelligence that is God. Prana Shakti is that which causes the body and all the organs to function. It is Vayu, the breath or life force that, when directed into the Sushumna Nadi, reveals God on a permanent basis.

  1. He that saves you at the time of death is Shiva. It is not Hari. Shakti is in Shiva. Maya (delusion) is in Hari. Bodies are earthly. The bodily senses are all looking outwards. Shiva is internal. He is the Brahma-Randhra. That which is taught by others is no real knowledge. That which has come to your experience is real knowledge.

Commentary: In order to become completely Liberated, in order to be free of the bondage that is the wheel of birth and death, you have to merge with the Guru-principle, that Shiva-Shakti power that is the energy substratum of all things. It is only Shiva, the Ultimate Reality, that saves you from the samsara of this world, not Hari ( the sustainer of worldliness also named ‘Vishnu’).

Shiva and Shakti are one in the same. They are the cause of everything created and uncreated everywhere. What is known as Hari, or the sustainer is really Maya Shakti or Shiva’s Maya that is responsible for the illusion of a Universe of all the worlds.

So, why become attached to the reflections (objects) of Shiva, the Supreme Subject, when you can turn your senses within and experience the Supreme Subject directly? Shiva is Chidakasha. Shiva is the Sahasrar, the triadic Heart (Shiva-Shakti-Nara). You cannot understand this simply from the speech of another. You have to experience it for yourself, in the laboratory of your own existence, by way of a Sadguru’s instruction.

  1. When you have attained perfect peace, there is no necessity of going anywhere. There is no necessity of seeing anything. There is no necessity of going to Kashi, Rameshvara, Gokarna and other holy places. All is seen in the mind. Going and coming are delusions of the mind. When peace is attained, ALL appears to be the ONE. Liberation from bondage is seeing the ONE in ALL and the ALL in ONE. This is desirelessness. The thing in the hand must be seen in the hand itself. You cannot find it anywhere else. So also, everything must be tested in one’s own thought.

Commentary: The perfect peace of God-realization causes you to become the place of pilgrimage. God exists inside you as you. When you realize this completely, when you merge with the Self in the great inner expanse of Chidakasha, there is no need to go to Rameshvara or other holy temples to experience God. When Liberated, the mind becomes Chiti once again and all places of pilgrimage and worship are contained in this state.

One does not have to go anywhere else to experience the Supreme Self. God. Seeing God in everything and everyone, everywhere is Liberation. This is desirelessness. Just as you don’t go searching elsewhere for something you already have in your hand, don’t go looking for Joy, Happiness and Peace outside where they are not. Go where they are, inside yourself. This can be tested by directing your mind and your thoughts back to the source, the inner Self, inside your own being.

  1. The real sunrise is to be seen in the sky of consciousness. This is the most excellent sunrise. The whole universe is to be seen in the heart space in one’s Self just as the sun is reflected in the water placed in a small mud vessel. When we travel by a cart, the whole world seems to be moving. Likewise, the whole universe can be known in yourself.

Commentary: The real sunrise is seen only in Chidakasha, the Sky of Divine Consciousness that is the Heart space in the head. Inside, thousands of great Suns (Adityas) can be seen. They are most excellent and much brighter than the sun in our solar system.

Just as you can see the reflection of the sun in water, what you experience as this world, this Universe, is really a reflection of what can be experienced in the Heart space inside your own being. When you get into a moving cart, it seems that the whole world is moving. But, really, you are the only one moving.

In the same way, activity in this world is a perception created by God’s force inside you. The entire universe is contained inside you. Your own Spanda Shakti creates a perception of activity where there really is none. You experience this perception inside your own being, and nowhere else.

By the Grace of the Sadguru and your effort at Sadhana, the whole universe can be known inside yourself.

  1. He who is hungry knows what hunger is. Similarly, everything is known to the Atman. When a train leaves a station, a wire is sent to the next station. When you throw a stone into a well, a sound is heard. So also, when Vayu is moving in the nerves, “ten kinds of sounds” become audible.

Commentary: You know what hunger is because you have experienced it. Likewise, the Atman, the Self, is the one and only experient – the Universal Experient. Everything is known to God who is the cause who is both the cause and the effect.

When a train leaves the station, a wire is sent to the next station. When you throw a stone into a well, a sound is heard. So also, when Prana (Vayu) moves though the 72,000 Nadis in the body, a message resounds throughout the body – embodied in the ten kinds of sounds.

This message is like a reverberation that is heard when you throw a stone into a well. This reverberation creates a “ripple effect” that sends Shakti throughout the nerves and three channels, purifying everything. As Prana moves through the 72,000 Nadis, all the ten kinds of celestial sounds can be heard. They are heard in one point known as Bindu Nada.

  1. Suppose water is boiled in a vessel whose mouth is closed. Then all the heat energy is concentrated in the vessel itself. When water comes out of a pump, we hear the sound of Omkar. We should abandon the forest path and tread the royal road. The energy moving downwards must be made to move upwards. The mind should know mind’s place.

Commentary: Human beings should turn their entire focus inside and keep it there. Just as you concentrate heat energy inside a pot of boiling water when the pot is closed, in the same way, when you close off the outer focus and become absorbed in the Self, Shakti builds up in your being and purifies it.

God, Shiva, exists in all things. Nothing exists anywhere that is not Shiva. This is why even water makes a sound that can be traced back to the Primordial OM. The forest path is the path of worldliness and sense pleasures. We should abandon this path for the royal road, the Siddha Path of the Sushumna Nadi that takes us to God.

This can be accomplished by learning, from a Siddha, how to direct Prana Shakti upward inside the Sushumna Nadi to merge in the Sahasrar. This is also the minds true place, to merge in Chidakasha.

  1. A boat does not sail where there is no water. So also, if Vayu does not move, there is no blood circulation. When circulation is stopped, heat ceases to be generated. When the generation of heat ceases, there is no digestion of food. So also, a train cannot move without fire.

Commentary: A boat needs water to sail. A train cannot move without the energy generated from its engine. In the same way, the body cannot function without Vayu, which is Prana (the breath and the force inherent in the breath).

It is Prana that causes the heart to pump and the blood to circulate. Without Prana, the body is a corpse. This Prana is also responsible for digesting food that is needed to sustain the body. Therefore, the body is not life. Prana is life. Prana is God.

  1. Without a rope, water from a well cannot be drawn up. In the body, breath is the rope. Drawing the inward breath harmoniously is like drawing up the water from a well.

Commentary: In order to get water from a well, you have to lower a bucket into the well and pull it back up with a rope. In Sadhana (daily spiritual practice), the well is the Sushumna Nadi, the bucket is Kundalini Shakti and the rope is the breath (Prana). Drawing Kundalini Shakti upwards into Sahasrar by directing Prana into the Sushumna is the key to experiencing the nectar of Self-Awareness. It is like drawing water from a well.

  1. In order to make planks of a wooden beam, it should be sawed up and down. Similarly, breath should move upwards and downwards in the body. It should be led into Buddhi and made always to move in an upward direction. To take a stone uphill, requires great effort but to bring it down by the same route is not difficult. So also, going up is difficult but coming down is easy. It is difficult for the Prana to leave the body. To receive a thing is easy but to return it is difficult. Those men who do not return what they have received are not worthy of the name of “men.” They are merely animals. They have no virtue.

Commentary: Wooden planks have to be sawed uniformly in order to fit properly when making a beam. In the same way, Prana has to be drawn in and out of the body uniformly, in an even fashion, in order for the Bliss of Supreme Consciousness to be experienced.

Buddhi is Shiva dwelling in the Sahasrar. During exhalation, the breath should be directed upward and into the Sushumna Nadi so that it can touch the thousand-petaled Lotus in the Sahasrar and advance to Vyapini or Turyatita in the spiritual center above the head. This requires effort, discipline and practice under the instruction of a Siddha Guru.

It is easy to be lazy and to destroy our equanimity by engaging in the bad habits of sense pleasures that make us forget God. Turning to God is more difficult because we are not in the habit of doing so. Nonetheless, God has given us life so that we can attain Him. We should return what we have received from God by fulfilling the goal of all Life, Liberation, so that, upon death, we can return to God by way of breaking the cycle of birth and death.

  1. It is impossible to describe the pangs of death. Jnana is attained by subtle thinking. So breath should be controlled. The mind should be merged in the sound.

Commentary: Death is the sleep of ignorance. Going through life without full awareness of the Shiva-Shakti power, the Supreme Self, is ignorance. When you carry this ignorance with you at the final moment of death, you do, indeed, suffer the pangs of death.

This death is an indescribable horror. For, not only do you have to travel to other realms to work out karmas that cannot be experienced in the body, but then you have to return here in another form to relive your ignorance all over again.

Jnana is attained by the subtle thinking derived from Shiva Consciousness. Through Sadhana (daily spiritual practice) as instructed by the Guru, your mind becomes very subtle and, eventually, merges in Bindu-Nada, the constant reverberation of Spanda that is experienced in Chidakasha. When this occurs, and you remain in this state on a constant basis, you do not die. You cast off this body for the last time and merge with Infinite Consciousness. For such a person, death does not exist.

  1. He who has a burden on his head, has his attention on the burden. Similarly, he who acts the part of a king in a field drama, has his attention fixed on the crown. Likewise, Jnanis have their attention fixed on Buddhi.

Commentary: You become what you think on the most. Whatever you invest your mind in, you become. You get what you meditate on. You become what you obey. Just as one who is sad or depressed feels this way because he/she has become absorbed in his burdens or suffering, just as an actor playing the part of a King merges his mind in the character of the King, Jnanis, the truly wise, have learned to keep their attention on the Self. In this way, they worship God by becoming God.

  1. Manas (mind) is inferior to Buddhi. Buddhi is the king. Manas is the prime minister. The prime minister must go to the palace often to see the king. So also, Manas is the king of the body.

Commentary: The mind is a contracted form of Chiti, the subtle intellect also known as Buddhi. This Buddhi is the place of Omniscience. As such, it is superior to the mind. Just as the prime minister’s job is to run the Kingdom in the way the King instructs, the mind’s job is to run and operate the body and the senses in the way that Buddhi, God, instructs. To accomplish this, just as the prime minister needs to go to the palace often to consult with the King, so too the mind needs to travel to the palace of the inner Self to consult with God.

  1. Gas light has no luster before the midday sun-light. Light is of use only when it is dark. When a man is hungry, he does not consider the difference of castes. Similarly, in sound sleep, there is no hunger. Then, Manas is absent. Just so, a man must sleep the sleep of yoga. Only such men are Jnanis.

Commentary: In the direct light of the sun all other light dissolves and only the sun is seen. Similarly, where there is no darkness, light is not even required. Just as when you are hungry and go to a restaurant, you will eat food without asking the race or background of the cook, in the same way, when your consciousness is merged in God, differences dissolve and there is no longer any duality. Only God exists.

Just as there is no hunger when you are sleeping soundly because the mind is absent in deep sleep, in the same way, you must sleep the sleep of Yoga and allow your mind to dissolve in Shiva Consciousness. In the uninterrupted state of constant rapture that is Mukti, the mind dissolves, the world dissolves, the Universe dissolves, and only Shiva, God remains. Those in this perfected state of Equality Consciousness experience only God everywhere. Such people are Jnanis.

  1. Take ten men; their Bhakti is not of an identical nature. When ten people are going on a journey, if one of them sits to take rest, the remaining nine will also do the same. Likewise, one man is inspired with Bhakti, other people, by seeing or hearing him become also Bhaktas.

Commentary: People love God and desire to know God in varying degrees, and some not at all. But, just as people on a hiking trip will stick together and stop for rest together when the leader designates, those whose love for God is weak or nonexistent can be encouraged to increase their Faith and Devotion, just by the example set by one person who loves God completely.

Therefore, keep good company. Keep the company of those saints who have realized God, who have become absorbed in the goal of the path. By doing so, you will be taken across by your Love and Devotion for such Siddhas. Just by keeping their company you can be transformed into a lover of God.

  1. You do not feel the scent of a flower which is in your own hand. Flowers which are distant smell sweet. Babies whose brains are not developed, see no difference in the things of the world. When their brains are developed, they see the difference in things. Until a baby is six months old, it feels no differences. A first class yogi is like a baby of this type. If you give a diamond to a baby, it throws it way. To such babies, pebbles and diamonds are the same. Similarly, to true Jnanis, a lump of earth and money are the same. They have no desires of any sort. They see the one Atman everywhere. All is seen in the Atman and the Atman in all. This vision is internal. What is called internal vision is “subtle discrimination.” Subtle discrimination is Shiva-Shakti. Shiva-Shakti is the indivisible Shakti of the Para-Brahma. What is Para-Brahma-Shakti is the Atman. This is the ONE reality.

Commentary: As we grow older and become more and more attached to the ramblings of our own mind in the pursuit of worldly pleasures, we consider ourselves to be mature and more intelligent. So intelligent that we start to take many things for granted. Just as we smell the scent of a flower at a distance, but cannot feel the scent of a flower in the hand, with the passing years, we learn how to make distinctions and differences that prevent us from seeing the One in the many.

A baby of six months or less does not have a “developed” brain that makes such distinctions. At this age, we see no differences. A diamond is the same as a hand full of dirt to us at this age. We have not yet learned distinctions like “mine” and “yours” and we simply dwell in a state of constant wonder where we see our own simple nature reflected everywhere. This is the state of a child up to six months old.

A first class yogi is like a baby of this age. Such a yogi lives in a desireless state seeing everything and everyone as that same Shiva-Shakti power, that same indivisible Parabrahman that is the Absolute. For such a person, only God exists and nothing else has value aside from that One God.

  1. Reality is the Prana in man. He is a man who thinks (ruminates) rightly. This correct thinking (right discrimination) is the real goal of man. Everything is attainable by practice. By practice, everything becomes known.

Commentary: Shiva Consciousness is the Reality. This Reality takes the form of Prana in a human being. That person is God who constantly contemplates his/her own true nature by experiencing God within. This experience is correct thinking. It is right discrimination and is the real goal of life. Through Sadhana under the direct guidance of the living Sadguru, all this becomes known firsthand. By practice you become That – the Self that you already are.

Verses 1-25, Verses 26-50, Verses 51-75,

Verses 76-100, Verses 101-125, Verses 126-150,

Verses 151-175, Verses 176-200, Verses 201-225,

Verses 226-250, Verses 251-286.

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