“That alone deserves to be called a J¶va (individual soul), which knows not MŒyŒ nor God nor one’s own self. And Ýiva (God) is He who awards bondage and liberation (according to one’s deserts), transcends all and is the controller of MŒyŒ.” (15) They are: absence of pride,freedom from hypocrisy, non-violence, forgiveness, guilelessness, devout service of one’s preceptor, purity of body and mind, steadfastness, subjugation of the mind, aversion to the objects of sense, absence of egotism, pondering again and again on the painful character of and the evils inherent in birth,death,old age and disease; absence of attachment and the feeling of mineness in respect of one’s son, wife, home, etc., and constant equipoise of mind both in favourable and unfavourable circumstances; unflinching devotion to the Lord through exclusive attachment living in secluded and holy places and finding no enjoyment in the company of men; fixity in self-knowledge and seeing God as the object of true knowledge (vide XIII.7–11). The definition given here narrates the opposites of these virtues, viz., pride,hypocrisy, violence and so on. The definition may be interpreted in a different way as well. It may be taken to mean that spiritual wisdom cannot be attained through the ordinary means of cognition (MŒnasa or PramŒ˜as) such as perception, inference, verbal testimony and so on; it is self-evident