The earth is the householder's fire, the intermediate space is the southern fire, and the sky is the offering fire. From these alone are Pavamāna, Pāvaka, and Śuci revealed — this is the sacrifice of these fires. For the gastric fire is the combined form of Pavamāna, Pāvaka, and Śuci. Therefore fire is to be worshipped, contemplated, praised, and meditated upon. The sacrificer, holding the offering, wishes to contemplate the deity: the golden-hued bird established in the heart and in the sun — the diver-bird, the swan, the bull of radiance — him we worship in this fire. And he reflects on the meaning of the mantra: that most excellent radiance of the sun is to be meditated upon — the one who stands within the intellect, who meditates here, follows the path of mental stillness, and places it within the Self alone. Here are the verses: 1. Just as a fire without fuel grows still in its own source, so too the mind, with the fading of its movements, grows still in its own source. 2. For a mind thus stilled in its source, longing only for what is real, bewildered by sense-objects — its actions follow falseness under the sway of karma. 3. The mind itself is the cycle of becoming; with effort it must be purified. Whatever the mind is absorbed in, one becomes that — this is the eternal secret. 4. By the serenity of the mind, one destroys karma both good and ill; the serene self, abiding in the Self, tastes inexhaustible joy. 5. As completely as the mind of a creature clings to the realm of the senses — if it were equally absorbed in Brahman, who would not be freed from bondage? 6. The mind is said to be of two kinds: pure and impure. Impure through contact with desire; pure when freed from all desire. 7. When the mind, made steady and still, free from dissolution and distraction, reaches the state of no-mind — that is the supreme state. 8. The mind must be restrained in the heart until it has reached its dissolution. That alone is knowledge and liberation; all else is but elaboration of texts. 9. The joy that comes to a consciousness cleansed by samādhi and established in the Self cannot be described by any word — it is grasped by the inner instrument itself. 10. Water cannot be perceived within water, fire within fire, or sky within sky — so too the one whose mind has gone within is fully liberated. 11. Mind alone is the cause of bondage and liberation for human beings: attachment to objects is bondage; liberation is known as freedom from objects. Therefore, fire is to be worshipped, contemplated, praised, and meditated upon.