This treatise called "Knowledge of Self" is written for the sake of those whose sins have been destroyed by austerities and who, with a tranquil mind and free from attachment, long for liberation. (1). Compared with all other means, knowledge is the only direct means to liberation. As cooking is impossible without fire, so is liberation impossible without knowledge. (2). Ritual cannot dispel ignorance, because they are not mutually contradictory.But knowledge,surely destroys ignorance, as light destroys the densest darkness. (3). The self appears to be conditioned by virtue of ignorance. But when that (ignorance) is destroyed, the unconditioned self shines by its own light, like the sun when the clouds have disappeared. (4). Having purified, by repeated instruction, the soul that is turbid with ignorance, knowledge should efface itself, as the paste of the cleaning-nut does with water. (5). The phenomenal world, abounding in desire, hatred, etc., is verily like a dream.