Chapter 306

‘”Janaka said, O holy one, it has been said that the relation betweenmale and female is like that which subsists between the Indestructibleand the destructible (or Purusha and Prakriti). Without a male, a femalecan never conceive. Without a female a male also can never create form.In consequence of their union with each other, and each depending uponthe attributes of the other, forms (of living creatures) are seen toflow. This is the case with all orders of being. Through each other’sunion for purposes of (sexual) congress, and through each depending uponthe attributes of the others, forms (of living creatures) flow inmenstrual seasons. I shall tell to thee the indications thereof. Hearwhat the attributes are that belong to the sire and what those are thatbelong to the mother. Bones, sinews and marrow, O regenerate one, weknow, are derived from the sire. Skin, flesh, and blood, we hear arederived from the mother. Even this, O foremost of regenerate persons, iswhat may be read of in the Vedas and other scriptures. Whatever is readas declared in the Vedas and in other scriptures is regarded asauthority. The authority, again, of the Vedas and other scriptures (notinconsistent with the Vedas), is eternal. If Prakriti and Purusha bealways united together in this way by each opposing and each depending onthe other’s attributes, I see, O holy one, that Emancipation cannotexist. Thou, O holy one, art possessed of spiritual vision so that thouseest all things as if they are present before thy eyes. If, therefore,there be any direct evidence of the existence of Emancipation, do thou,speak of it to me. We are desirous of attaining to Emancipation. Indeed,we wish to attain to That which is auspicious, bodiless, not subject todecrepitude, eternal beyond the ken of the senses, and having nothingsuperior to it.

‘”Vasishtha said, What thou sayest about the indications of the Vedas andthe other scriptures (in respect of the matter) is even so. Thou takestthose indications in the way in which they should be taken. Thou bearest,however, in thy understanding, only the texts of the Vedas and the otherscriptures. Thou art not, O monarch, truly conversant with the realmeaning of those texts. That person who bears in his understanding merelythe texts of the Vedas and the other scriptures without being conversantwith the true sense or meaning of those texts, bears them fruitlessly.Indeed, one who holds the contents of a work in memory withoutcomprehending their meaning is said to bear an useless burden. He,however, who is conversant with the true meaning of a treatise, is saidto have studied that treatise to purpose. Questioned regarding themeaning of a text, it behoveth one to communicate that meaning which hehas comprehended by a careful study. That person of dull intelligence whorefuses to expound the meanings of texts in the midst of a conclave ofthe learned, that person of foolish understanding, never succeeds inexpounding the meaning correctly.[1618] An ignorant person, going toexpound the true meaning of treatises, incurs ridicule. Even thosepossessed of a knowledge of the Soul have to incur ridicule on suchoccasions (if what they go to explain has not been acquired by study).Listen now to me, O monarch, as to how the subject of Emancipation hasbeen explained (by preceptors to disciple from days of old) amonghighsouled persons conversant with the Sankhya and the Yoga systems ofphilosophy. That which the Yogin, behold is precisely that which theSankhyas arrive after to attain. He who sees the Sankhya and the Yogasystems to be one and the same is said to be endued with intelligence.Skin, flesh, blood, fat, bile, marrow, and sinews, and these senses (ofboth knowledge and action), about which thou wert speaking unto me,exist. Objects flow from objects; the senses from the senses. From bodyone obtains a body, as a seed is obtained from seed. When the SupremeBeing is without senses, without seed, without matter, without body, Hemust be divested of all attributes! and in consequence of His being so,how, indeed, can He have attributes of any kind? Space and otherattributes arise from the attributes of Sattwa and Rajas and Tamas, anddisappear ultimately in them. Thus the attributes arise from Prakriti.Skin, flesh, blood, fat, bile, marrow, bones, and sinews,–these eightthat are made of Prakriti, know, O king, may sometimes be produced by thevital seed alone (of the male). The Jiva-soul and the universe are saidto both partake of Prakriti characterised by the three attributes ofSattwa, Rajas, and Tamas. The Supreme Soul is different from both theJiva-soul and the universe. As the seasons though unendued with forms,are nevertheless inferred from the appearance of particular fruits andflowers, after the same manner, Prakriti, though formless, is inferredfrom the attributes of Mahat and the rest that spring from it. In thisway from the existence of Chaitanya in the body, the Supreme Soul,divested of all attributes whatever and perfectly stainless, is inferred.Without beginning and destruction, without end, the overseer of allthings, and auspicious, that Soul, only in consequence of its identifyingitself with the body and other attributes, comes to be taken as investedwith attributes. Those persons that are truly conversant with attributesknow that only objects endued with attributes can have attributes butthat That which transcends all attributes can have none. When theJiva-soul conquers all attributes born of Prakriti and which it assumesunder error, only then does it behold the Supreme Soul. Only the highestRishis conversant with the Sankhya and the Yoga systems know that SupremeSoul which Sankhya and Yogins and believers in all other systems say isbeyond the Understanding, which is regarded as Knower and endued with thehighest wisdom in consequence of its casting off all consciousness ofidentification with Prakriti, which transcends the attribute of Ignoranceor Error, which is Unmanifest, which is beyond all attributes, which iscalled the Supreme, which is dissociated from all attributes, whichordains all things, which is Eternal and Immutable, which overrulesPrakriti and all the attributes born of Prakriti, and which, transcendingthe four and twenty topics of enquiry, forms the twenty-fifth. When menof knowledge, who stand in fear of birth, of the several conditions ofliving consciousness, and of death, succeed in knowing the Unmanifest,they succeed in understanding the Supreme Soul at the same time. Anintelligent man regards the unity of Jiva-soul with the Supreme Soul asconsistent with the scriptures and as perfectly correct, while the mandestitute of intelligence looks upon the two as different from eachother. This forms the distinction between the man of intelligence and manthat is destitute of it. The indications of both Kshara and Akshara(destructible and indestructible) have now been said unto thee. Aksharais Oneness or Unity, while multiplicity or variety is said to be Kshara.When one begins to study and understands properly the five and twentytopics of enquiry, one then comprehends that the Oneness of the Soul isconsistent with the scriptures and its multiplicity is what is opposed tothem. These are the several indications of what is included in the taleof topics or principles created and what transcends that tale. The wisehave said that the tale of topics numbers only five and twenty. Thatwhich transcends the topics is beyond that number and forms thetwenty-sixth. The study or comprehension of created things (numbered fiveand twenty) according to their aggregates (of five) is the study andcomprehension of topics. Transcending these is That which is eternal.'”