Chapter 213

“Bhishma said, ‘From the attribute of Passion arises delusion or loss ofjudgment. From the attribute of Darkness, O bull of Bharata’s race, arisewrath and cupidity and fear and pride. When all these are destroyed, onebecomes pure. By obtaining purity, a person succeeds in arriving at theknowledge of the Supreme Soul which is resplendent with effulgence,incapable of deterioration, without change, pervading all things, havingthe unmanifest for his refuge, and the foremost of all the deities.Invested in His maya, men fall away from knowledge and become senseless,and in consequence of their knowledge being darkened, yield towrath.[736] From wrath, they become subject to desire. From desire springcupidity and delusion and vanity and pride and selfishness. From suchselfishness proceeds various kinds of acts.[737] From acts spring diversebonds of affection and from those bonds of affection spring sorrow ormisery and from acts fraught with joy and sorrow proceeds the liabilityto birth and death.[738] In consequence of the obligation of birth, theliability is incurred of a residence within the womb, due to the union ofvital seed and blood. That residence is defiled with excreta and urineand phlegm, and always fouled with blood that is generated there.Overwhelmed by thirst, the Chit-Soul becomes bound by wrath and the restthat have been enumerated above. It seeks, however, to escape thoseevils. In respect of this, women must be regarded as instruments whichset the stream of Creation agoing. By their nature, women are Kshetra,and men are Kshetrajna in respect of attributes. For this reason, personsof wisdom should not pursue women in especial (among other objects of theworld).[739] Indeed, women are like frightful mantra-powers. They stupefypersons reft of wisdom. They are sunk in the attribute of Passion. Theyare the eternal embodiment of the senses.[740] In consequence of the keendesire that men entertain for women, off-spring proceed from them, due to(the action of) the vital seed. As one casts off from one’s body suchvermin as take their birth there but as are not on that account any partof oneself, even so should one cast off those vermin of one’s body thatare called children, who, though regarded as one’s own, are not one’s ownin reality. From the vital seed as from sweat (and other filth) creaturesspring from the body, influenced by the acts of previous lives or in thecourse of nature. Therefore, one possessed of wisdom should feel noregard for them.[741] The attribute of Passion rests on that of Darkness.The attribute of Goodness, again, rests on that of Passion. Darknesswhich is unmanifest overspreads itself on Knowledge, and causes thephenomena of Intelligence and Consciousness.[742] That knowledgepossessing the attributes of Intelligence and Consciousness has been saidto be the seed of embodied Souls. That, again, which is the seed of suchknowledge is called the Jiva (or Chit-Soul).[743] In consequence of actsand the virtue of time, the Soul goes through birth and repeated roundsof rebirth. As in a dream the Soul sports as if invested with a bodywhich, of course, is due to the action of the mind, after the samemanner, it obtains in the mother’s womb a body in consequence ofattributes and propensities having (past) acts for their origin. Whateversenses while it is there, are awakened by past acts as the operatingcause, become generated in Consciousness in consequence of the mindco-existing with attachments.[744] In consequence of the past thoughts ofsound that are awakened in it, the Soul, subjected to such influences,receives the organ of hearing. Similarly, from attachment to forms, itseye is produced, and from its longing after scent its organ of smelling.From thoughts of touch it acquires the skin. In the same way thefive-fold breaths are acquired by it, viz., Prana, Apana, Vyana, Udana,and Samana, which contribute to keep the body agoing. Encased in bodywith all limbs fully developed in consequence (as shown above) of pastacts, the Soul takes birth, with sorrow, both physical and mental, in thebeginning, middle, and end. It should be known that sorrow springs fromthe very fact of acceptance of body (in the womb). It increases with theidea of Self. From renunciation of these (attachments which are the causeof birth), sorrow meets with an end. He that is conversant with sorrow’send attains to Emancipation.[745] Both the origin and the destruction ofthe senses rest in the attribute of Passion. The man of wisdom should actwith proper scrutiny with the aid of the eye constituted by thescriptures.[746] The senses of knowledge, even if they succeed in earningall their objects, never succeed in overwhelming the man that is withoutthirst. The embodied Soul, by making its senses weak, escapes theobligation or rebirth.'”[747]