The Ātman is described as nirvikalpa (free from conceptual construction), śuddha (pure), and of the nature of sat-cid-ānanda (existence-consciousness-bliss). The sage who knows this is free from all fear and free from all desire, because fear requires something other than oneself to threaten, and desire requires something other than oneself to obtain. Chapter 10 repeatedly returns to this consequence: recognition of the Self removes the conditions that make saṃsāra possible.