I:1 Parambrahma (Spirit or God) is everlasting, complete, without beginning or end. It is one, indivisible Being.
I:2 In It (Parambrahma) is the origin of all knowledge and love, the root of all power and joy.
I:3 Parambrahma causes creation, inert Nature (Prakriti), to emerge. From Aum (Pranava, the Word, the manifestation of the Omnipotent Force), come Kala, Time; Desa, Space; and Anu, the Atom (the vibratory structure of creation).
I:4 The cause of creation is Anu or the Atoms. En masse they are called Maya or the Lord's illusory power; each individual Anu is called Avidya, Ignorance.
I:5 The Omniscient Love aspect of Parambrahma is Kutastha Chaitanya. The individual Self, being Its manifestation, is one with It.
I:6 The Atom, under the influence of Chit (universal knowledge) forms the Chitta or the calm state of mind, which when spiritualized is called Buddhi, Intelligence. Its opposite is Manas, Mind, in which lives the Jiva: the self with Ahamkara, Ego, the idea of separate existence.
I:7-10 Chitta, the spiritualized Atom, in which Ahamkara (the idea of separate existence of Self) appears, has five manifestations (aura electricities). They (the five aura electricities) constitute the causal body of Purusha. The five electricities, Pancha Tattwa, from their three attributes, Gunas—Sattwa (positive), Rajas (neutralizing), and Tamas (negative)—produce Jnanandriyas (organs of sense), Karmendriyas (organs of action), and Tanmatras (objects of sense). These fifteen attributes plus Mind and Intelligence constitute the seventeen "fine limbs" of the subtle body, the Lingasarira.
I:11-12 The aforesaid five objects, which are the negative attributes of the five electricities, being combined produce the idea of gross matter in its five forms: Kshiti, solids; Ap, liquids; Tejas, fire; Marut, gaseous substances; and Akasa, ether. These five forms of gross matter and the aforesaid fifteen attributes, together with Manas, Mind, sense consciousness; Buddhi, discriminative Intelligence; Chitta, the Heart or power of feeling; and Ahamkara, the Ego, constitute the twenty-four basic principles of creation.
I:13 This universe is differentiated into fourteen spheres, seven Swargas and seven Patalas.
I:14 Purusha is covered by five koshas or sheaths.
I:15-16 Just as the objects seen in our dreams are found, when we awake, to be insubstantial, so our waking perceptions are likewise unreal—a matter of inference only.
I:17 What is needed is a Guru, a Savior, who will awaken us to Bhakti (devotion) and to perceptions of Truth.
I:18 Emancipation (Kaivalya) is obtained when one realizes the oneness of his Self with the Universal Self, the Supreme Reality.