SECTION CCXXXIX
"Bhishma said, 'Thus addressed (by his sire), Suka, highly applauding
these instructions of the great Rishi, set himself about asking the
following, question relating to the import of duties that lead to
Emancipation.'
"Suka said, 'By what means doth one possessed of wisdom, conversant with
the Vedas, observant of sacrifices, endued with wisdom, and free from
malice, succeed in attaining to Brahma which is incapable of being
apprehended by either direct evidence or inference, and unsusceptible of
being indicated by the Vedas? Asked by me, tell me by what means is
Brahma to be apprehended? Is it by penance, by Brahmacharya, by
renunciation of everything, by intelligence, by the aid of the Sankhya
philosophy, or by Yoga? By what means may what kind of singleness of
purpose be attained by men, with respect to both, viz., the mind and the
senses? It behoveth thee to expound all this to me.'[949]
"Vyasa said, 'No man ever attains to success by means other than the
acquisition of knowledge, the practice of penances, the subjugation of
the senses, and renunciation of everything.[950] The great entities (five
in number) represent the first (or initial) creation of the Self-born.
They have been very largely placed in embodied creatures included in the
world of life.[951] The bodies of all embodied creatures are derived from
earth. The humours are from water. Their eyes are said to be derived from
light. Prana, Apana (and the three other vital breaths) have the wind for
their refuge. And, lastly, all unoccupied apertures within them (such as
the nostrils, the cavities of the ear, etc.) are of Space. In the feet
(of living creatures) is Vishnu. In their arms is Indra. Within the
stomach is Agni desirous of eating. In the ears are the points of the
horizon (or the compass) representing the sense of hearing. In the tongue
is speech which is Saraswati.[952] The ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose
forming the fifth, are said to be the sense of knowledge. These exist for
the purposes of apprehension of their respective objects. Sound, touch,
form, taste and scent forming the fifth, are the objects of the (five)
senses. These should always be regarded as separate from (or independent
of) the senses. Like the charioteer setting his well-broken steeds along
the paths he pleases, the mind sets the senses (along directions it
pleases). The mind, in its turn, is employed by the knowledge sitting in
the heart.[953] The mind is the lord of all these senses in respect of
employing them in their functions and guiding or restraining them.
Similarly, the knowledge is the lord of the mind (in employing, and
guiding or restraining it).[954] The senses, the objects of the senses,
the attributes of those objects represented by the word nature,
knowledge, mind, the vital breaths, and Jiva dwell in the bodies of all
embodied creatures.[955] The body within which the knowledge dwells has
no real existence. The body, therefore, is not the refuge of the
knowledge. Primordial Nature (Prakriti) having the three attributes (of
Goodness and Passion and Darkness) is the refuge of the knowledge which
exists only in the form of a sound. The Soul also is not the refuge of
the knowledge. It is Desire that creates the knowledge. Desire, however,
never creates the three attributes.[956] The man of wisdom, capable of
subduing his senses, beholds the seventeenth, viz., the Soul, as
surrounded by six and ten attributes, in his own knowledge by the aid of
the mind. The Soul cannot be beheld with the aid of the eye or with that
of all the senses. Transcending all, the Soul becomes visible by only the
light of the mind's lamp. Divested of the properties of sound and touch
and form, without taste and scent, indestructible and without a body
(either gross or subtile) and without senses, it is nevertheless beheld
within the body. Unmanifest and supreme, it dwells in all mortal bodies.
Following the lead of the preceptor and the Vedas, he who beholds it
hereafter becomes Brahma's self. They that are possessed of wisdom look
with an equal eye upon a Brahmana possessed of knowledge and disciples, a
cow, an elephant, a dog, and a Chandala.[957] Transcending all things,
the Soul dwells in all creatures mobile and immobile. Indeed, all things
are pervaded by it.[958] When a living creature beholds his own Soul in
all things, and all things in his own Soul, he is said to attain to
Brahma. One occupies that much of the Supreme Soul as is commensurate
with what is occupied in one's own soul by Vedic sound.[959]He that can
always realise the identity of all things with his own self certainly
attains to immortality. The very gods are stupefied in the track of that
trackless man who constitutes himself the soul of all creatures, who is
engaged in the good of all beings, and who desire to attain to (Brahma
which is) the final refuge (of all things).[960] Indeed, the track which
is pursued by men of knowledge is as visible as that of birds in the sky
or of fish in water. Time of its own power, cooks all entities within
itself. No one, however, knows That in which Time, in its turn, is itself
cooked.[961] That (of which I speak) does not occur above, or in the
middle or below, or in transverse or in any other direction. That is to
tangible entity; it is not to be found in any place.[962] All these
worlds are within That. There is nothing in these worlds that exists out
of that. Even if one goes on ceaselessly with the celerity of a shaft
impelled from the bow-string, even if one goes on with the speed of the
mind, itself, one would not still reach the end of that which is the
cause of all this.[963] That is so gross that there is nothing grosser.
His hands and feet extend everywhere. His eyes, head, and face are
everywhere. His ears are everywhere in the universe. He exists
overwhelming all things. That is minuter than the minutest, that is the
heart of all entities. Existing, without doubt, that is still
imperceptible. Indestructible and destructible,--these are the dual forms
of existence of the (Supreme) Soul. In all mobile and immobile entities
the existence it displays is destructible; while the existence it
displays in Chaitanya is celestial, immortal, and indestructible. Though
the lord of a existent beings both mobile and immobile, though inactive
and divested of attributes, it enters, nevertheless, the well-known
mansion of nine doors and becomes engaged in action.[964] Men of wisdom
who are capable of beholding the other shore say that the Unborn (or the
Supreme Soul) becomes invested with the attribute of action in
consequence of motion, pleasure and pain, variety of form, and the nine
well-known possessions.[965] That indestructible Soul which is said to be
invested with the attribute of action is nothing else than that
indestructible Soul which is said to be inactive. A person of knowledge,
by attaining to that indestructible essence, gives up for good both life
and birth.'"[966]
