Chapter 211

“Bhishma said, ‘All immobile and mobile beings, distributed into fourclasses, have been said to be of unmanifest birth and unmanifest death.Existing only in the unmanifest Soul, the Mind is said to possess theattributes of the unmanifest.[719] As a vast tree is ensconced within asmall unblown Aswattha flower and becomes observable only when it comesout, even so birth takes place from what is unmanifest. A piece of iron,which is inanimate, runs towards a piece of loadstone. Similarly,inclinations and propensities due to natural instincts, and all else, runtowards the Soul in a new life.[720] Indeed, even as those propensitiesand possessions born of Ignorance and Delusion, and inanimate in respectof their nature, are united with Soul when reborn, after the same manner,those other propensities and aspirations of the Soul that have their gazedirected towards Brahma become united with it, coming to it directly fromBrahma itself.[721] Neither earth, nor sky, nor heaven, nor things, northe vital breaths, nor virtue and vice, nor anything else, existedbefore, save the Chit-Soul. Nor have they any necessary connection witheven the Chit-Soul defiled by Ignorance.[722] The Soul is eternal. It isindestructible. It occurs in every creature. It is the cause of the Mind.It is without attributes, This universe that we perceive hath beendeclared (in the Vedas) to be due to Ignorance or Delusion. The Soul’sapprehensions of form, etc., are due to past desires.[723] The Soul, whenit becomes endued with those causes (viz., desire), is led to the stateof its being engaged in acts. In consequence of that condition (for thoseacts again produce desires to end in acts anew and so on),–this vastwheel to existence revolves, without beginning and without end.[724] TheUnmanifest, viz., the Understanding (with the desires), is the nave ofthat wheel. The Manifest (i.e., the body with the senses) constitutes itsassemblage of spokes, the perceptions and acts from its circumference.Propelled by the quality of Rajas (Passion), the Soul presides over it(witnessing its revolutions). Like oilmen pressing oilseeds in theirmachine, the consequences born of Ignorance, assailing the universe (ofcreatures) which is moistened by Rajas, press or grind it in that wheel.In that succession of existences, the living creature, seized by the ideaof Self in consequence of desire, engages itself in acts. In the union ofcause and effect, those acts again become (new causes).[725] Effects donot enter into causes. Nor do causes enter into effects. In theproduction of effects, Time is the Cause. The primordial essences (eightin number as mentioned before), and their modifications six-(teen innumber), fraught with causes, exists in a state of union, in consequenceof their being always presided over by the Soul. Like dust following thewind that moves it, the creature-Soul, divested of body, but endued stillwith inclinations born of Passion and Darkness and with principles ofcauses constituted by the acts of the life that is over, moves on,following the direction that the Supreme Soul gives it. The Soul,however, is never touched by those inclinations and propensities. Nor arethese touched by the Soul that is superior to them. The wind, which isnaturally pure, is never stained by the dust it bears away.[726] As thewind is truly separate from the dust it bears away, even so, the man ofwisdom should know, is the connection between that which is calledexistence or life and the Soul. No one should take it that the Soul, inconsequence of its apparent union with the body and the senses and theother propensities and beliefs and unbeliefs, is really endued therewithas its necessary and absolute qualities. On the other hand, the Soulshould be taken as existing in its own nature. Thus did the divine Rishisolve the doubt that had taken possession of his disciple’s mind.Notwithstanding all this, people depend upon means consisting of acts andscriptural rites for casting off misery and winning happiness. Seeds thatare scorched by fire do not put forth sprouts. After the same manner, ifeverything that contributes to misery be consumed by the fire of trueknowledge, the Soul escapes the obligation of rebirth in the world.’