Notes: The word ātmā or "self" has multiple imports. In here, the "self that uplifts" is the emergent higher self reached through purification and progressive union, the self-presence that is rooted in actuality, unconditioned by the hallucinations born of a fractured and finite sense of self. The common self is the conflicted being that navigates the dualities of existence, struggling to reconcile the push and pull of its internal polarization in relation to the environment. The "self that degrades" is the self given to the pursuit of self-centered desire — the nemesis of the authentic self. Another import of the term "self", discussed later in the text, is the "absolute self" in the sphere of undifferentiated consciousness.