SECTION CCXIII
"Bhishma said, 'From the attribute of Passion arises delusion or loss of
judgment. From the attribute of Darkness, O bull of Bharata's race, arise
wrath and cupidity and fear and pride. When all these are destroyed, one
becomes pure. By obtaining purity, a person succeeds in arriving at the
knowledge of the Supreme Soul which is resplendent with effulgence,
incapable of deterioration, without change, pervading all things, having
the 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 to
wrath.[736] From wrath, they become subject to desire. From desire spring
cupidity and delusion and vanity and pride and selfishness. From such
selfishness proceeds various kinds of acts.[737] From acts spring diverse
bonds of affection and from those bonds of affection spring sorrow or
misery and from acts fraught with joy and sorrow proceeds the liability
to birth and death.[738] In consequence of the obligation of birth, the
liability is incurred of a residence within the womb, due to the union of
vital seed and blood. That residence is defiled with excreta and urine
and phlegm, and always fouled with blood that is generated there.
Overwhelmed by thirst, the Chit-Soul becomes bound by wrath and the rest
that have been enumerated above. It seeks, however, to escape those
evils. In respect of this, women must be regarded as instruments which
set the stream of Creation agoing. By their nature, women are Kshetra,
and men are Kshetrajna in respect of attributes. For this reason, persons
of wisdom should not pursue women in especial (among other objects of the
world).[739] Indeed, women are like frightful mantra-powers. They stupefy
persons reft of wisdom. They are sunk in the attribute of Passion. They
are the eternal embodiment of the senses.[740] In consequence of the keen
desire 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 such
vermin as take their birth there but as are not on that account any part
of oneself, even so should one cast off those vermin of one's body that
are called children, who, though regarded as one's own, are not one's own
in reality. From the vital seed as from sweat (and other filth) creatures
spring from the body, influenced by the acts of previous lives or in the
course of nature. Therefore, one possessed of wisdom should feel no
regard for them.[741] The attribute of Passion rests on that of Darkness.
The attribute of Goodness, again, rests on that of Passion. Darkness
which is unmanifest overspreads itself on Knowledge, and causes the
phenomena of Intelligence and Consciousness.[742] That knowledge
possessing the attributes of Intelligence and Consciousness has been said
to be the seed of embodied Souls. That, again, which is the seed of such
knowledge is called the Jiva (or Chit-Soul).[743] In consequence of acts
and the virtue of time, the Soul goes through birth and repeated rounds
of rebirth. As in a dream the Soul sports as if invested with a body
which, of course, is due to the action of the mind, after the same
manner, it obtains in the mother's womb a body in consequence of
attributes and propensities having (past) acts for their origin. Whatever
senses while it is there, are awakened by past acts as the operating
cause, become generated in Consciousness in consequence of the mind
co-existing with attachments.[744] In consequence of the past thoughts of
sound that are awakened in it, the Soul, subjected to such influences,
receives the organ of hearing. Similarly, from attachment to forms, its
eye is produced, and from its longing after scent its organ of smelling.
From thoughts of touch it acquires the skin. In the same way the
five-fold breaths are acquired by it, viz., Prana, Apana, Vyana, Udana,
and Samana, which contribute to keep the body agoing. Encased in body
with all limbs fully developed in consequence (as shown above) of past
acts, the Soul takes birth, with sorrow, both physical and mental, in the
beginning, middle, and end. It should be known that sorrow springs from
the very fact of acceptance of body (in the womb). It increases with the
idea of Self. From renunciation of these (attachments which are the cause
of birth), sorrow meets with an end. He that is conversant with sorrow's
end attains to Emancipation.[745] Both the origin and the destruction of
the senses rest in the attribute of Passion. The man of wisdom should act
with proper scrutiny with the aid of the eye constituted by the
scriptures.[746] The senses of knowledge, even if they succeed in earning
all their objects, never succeed in overwhelming the man that is without
thirst. The embodied Soul, by making its senses weak, escapes the
obligation or rebirth.'"[747]
