Avadhuta Gita, Chapter I

Sloka 17
For you there is nobirth or death,
for you there is no mind,
for you there is no bondage or liberation, no good or evil.
Why do you shed tears, my child?
Neither you nor I have name or form.

Sloka 21
Know that which has form to be false,
that which is formless to be eternal.
Through the instruction of this truth there is no longer rebirth into this world.

Notes by Swami Ashokananda: knowing oneself as eternal, one is not born into this world anymore, since incarnation is caused only by the soul's ignorance of its true nature.

Sloka 22
Sages say that Reality is one only and the same.
And through renunciation of attachment, the mind, which is one and many, ceases to exist.

Note by Swami Ashokananda: "one" is high (but not the highest) state of illumination, and "many" in the state of ignorance.

Sloka 23
If it is of the nature of the not-Self, how can there be samadhi (superconscious realization)?
If it is of the nature of the Self, how can there be samadhi?
It is both "is" and is not", how can there be samadhi?
If all is one and of the nature of freedom, how can there be samadhi?

Note from Swami Ashokananda:by "it" it is meant the Universe of Experience.
by "samadhi" it is meant the quieting and extinction of the mind, as a result of which the eternal Truth is realized. Dattatreya maintains that the practice of samadhi has no justification. If the universe of our experience is the not-Self, then we are not in the state of samadhi, for the Truth is not there. If our experience is of the Self, then samadhi is superfluous.

in our Forest surrounding our Hermitage in Kolli Hills, Tamil Nadu, South India 

Swami Pranavananda at his Hermitage, Kolli Hills, Tamil Nadu, South India, Nov 2003 

Swami Pranavananda at Haridwar Kumbha Mela Feb/March 1998