SECTION CCXI
"Bhishma said, 'All immobile and mobile beings, distributed into four
classes, have been said to be of unmanifest birth and unmanifest death.
Existing only in the unmanifest Soul, the Mind is said to possess the
attributes of the unmanifest.[719] As a vast tree is ensconced within a
small unblown Aswattha flower and becomes observable only when it comes
out, 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, run
towards the Soul in a new life.[720] Indeed, even as those propensities
and possessions born of Ignorance and Delusion, and inanimate in respect
of their nature, are united with Soul when reborn, after the same manner,
those other propensities and aspirations of the Soul that have their gaze
directed towards Brahma become united with it, coming to it directly from
Brahma itself.[721] Neither earth, nor sky, nor heaven, nor things, nor
the vital breaths, nor virtue and vice, nor anything else, existed
before, save the Chit-Soul. Nor have they any necessary connection with
even the Chit-Soul defiled by Ignorance.[722] The Soul is eternal. It is
indestructible. It occurs in every creature. It is the cause of the Mind.
It is without attributes, This universe that we perceive hath been
declared (in the Vedas) to be due to Ignorance or Delusion. The Soul's
apprehensions of form, etc., are due to past desires.[723] The Soul, when
it becomes endued with those causes (viz., desire), is led to the state
of its being engaged in acts. In consequence of that condition (for those
acts again produce desires to end in acts anew and so on),--this vast
wheel to existence revolves, without beginning and without end.[724] The
Unmanifest, viz., the Understanding (with the desires), is the nave of
that wheel. The Manifest (i.e., the body with the senses) constitutes its
assemblage 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 their
machine, the consequences born of Ignorance, assailing the universe (of
creatures) which is moistened by Rajas, press or grind it in that wheel.
In that succession of existences, the living creature, seized by the idea
of Self in consequence of desire, engages itself in acts. In the union of
cause and effect, those acts again become (new causes).[725] Effects do
not enter into causes. Nor do causes enter into effects. In the
production of effects, Time is the Cause. The primordial essences (eight
in number as mentioned before), and their modifications six-(teen in
number), fraught with causes, exists in a state of union, in consequence
of their being always presided over by the Soul. Like dust following the
wind that moves it, the creature-Soul, divested of body, but endued still
with inclinations born of Passion and Darkness and with principles of
causes 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 are
these touched by the Soul that is superior to them. The wind, which is
naturally pure, is never stained by the dust it bears away.[726] As the
wind is truly separate from the dust it bears away, even so, the man of
wisdom should know, is the connection between that which is called
existence or life and the Soul. No one should take it that the Soul, in
consequence of its apparent union with the body and the senses and the
other propensities and beliefs and unbeliefs, is really endued therewith
as its necessary and absolute qualities. On the other hand, the Soul
should be taken as existing in its own nature. Thus did the divine Rishi
solve the doubt that had taken possession of his disciple's mind.
Notwithstanding all this, people depend upon means consisting of acts and
scriptural rites for casting off misery and winning happiness. Seeds that
are scorched by fire do not put forth sprouts. After the same manner, if
everything that contributes to misery be consumed by the fire of true
knowledge, the Soul escapes the obligation of rebirth in the world.'
