SECTION XVIII
"--The Brahmana said, 'The acts, good and bad, that a Jiva does are not
subject to destruction. Upon attainment of body after body, those acts
produce fruits corresponding with them.[16] As a fruit-bearing tree, when
the season comes of productivity, yields a large quantity of fruit,
similarly merit, achieved with a pure heart, yields a large crop (of
felicity). After the same fashion, sin, done with a sinful heart,
produces a large crop of misery. The Soul (or Jiva), placing the mind
ahead, addresses himself to action. Hear then how Jiva, equipt with all
his acts and overwhelmed with lust and wrath, enters the womb. The vital
seed, mixed with blood, enters the womb of females and becomes the field
(of Jiva), good or bad, born of (his) acts. In consequence of his
subtlety and the condition of being unmanifest, Jiva does not become
attached to anything even after attaining to a body. Therefore, he is
called Eternal Brahman.[17] That (viz., Jiva or Brahman) is the seed of
all creatures. It is in consequence of Him that living creatures live.
That Jiva, entering all the limbs of the foetus part by part, accepting
the attribute of mind, and residing within all the regions that belong to
Prana, supports (life). In consequence of this, the foetus becoming
endued with mind begins to move its limbs.[18] As liquified iron, poured
(into a mould), takes the form of the mould, know that the entrance of
Jiva into the foetus is even such. As fire, entering a mass of iron,
heats it greatly, do thou know that the manifestation of Jiva in the
foetus is such. As a lamp, burning in a room, discovers (all things
within it), after the same manner mind discovers the different limbs of
the body.[19] Whatever acts, good or bad, Jiva does in a former body,
have certainly to be enjoyed or endured by him. By such enjoyment and
endurance former acts are exhausted, and other acts, again, accumulate,
till Jiva succeed in acquiring a knowledge of the duties included in that
contemplation which leads to Emancipation. Regarding this, I shall tell
thee those acts by which Jiva, O best of men, while coursing through a
repeated round of re-births, becomes happy, Gifts, observances of
austerity, Brahmacharyya, bearing Brahman according to the ordinances
laid down, self-restraint, tranquillity, compassion for all creatures,
restraint of passions, abstentions from cruelty as also from
appropriating what belongs to others, refraining from doing even mentally
all acts that are false and injurious to living creatures on the Earth,
reverently serving mother and father, honouring deities and guests,
worship of preceptors, pity, purity, constant restraint of all organs,
and causing of all good acts, are said to constitute the conduct of the
good. From observance of such conduct, arises Righteousness which
protects all creatures eternally. Such conduct one would always behold
among persons that are good. Verily, such conduct resides there
eternally. That course of practices to which persons of tranquil souls
adhere indicates Righteousness. Among them is thrown that course of
practices which constitutes eternal Righteousness. He who would betake
himself to that Righteousness would never have to attain to a miserable
end. It is by the conduct of the good that the world is restrained in the
paths of Righteousness when it falls away. He that is a Yogin is
Emancipated, and is, therefore, distinguished above these (viz., the
good).[20] Deliverance from the world takes place, after a long time, of
one who acts righteously and well on every occasion as he should. A
living creature thus always meets with the acts done by him in a former
life. All these acts constitute the cause in consequence of which he
comes into this world in a state different from his true form.[21] There
is a doubt in the world as regards the question. By what was the
acceptance (by Jiva) of a body first determined. The Grandsire of all the
worlds, viz., Brahma having first formed a body of his own, then created
the three worlds, in their entirety, of mobile and immobile creatures.
Having first himself assumed a body, he then created Pradhana. That
Pradhana is the material cause of all embodied creatures, by whom is all
this covered and whom all came to know as the highest. This that is seen
is said to be destructible; while the other is immortal and
indestructible. This that (is seen) is said to be Kshara (the
destructible); that, however, which is Para (the other) is the Immortal,
(as also) Akshara (the Indestructible). Of each Purusha taken
distributively, the whole is duality among these three.[22] Seen first
(to appear in an embodied form) Prajapati (then) created all the primal
elements and all immobile creatures. Even this is the ancient audition.
Of that (acceptance of body), the Grandsire ordained a limit in respect
of time, and migrations among diverse creatures and return or rebirth.
All that I say is proper and correct, like to what a person who is endued
with intelligence and who has seen his soul, would say on this topic of
previous births.[23] That person who looks upon pleasure and pain as
inconstant, which, indeed, is the correct view, who regards the body as
an unholy conglomeration, and destruction as ordained in action, and who
remembers that what little of pleasure there is, is really all pain, will
succeed in crossing this terrible ocean of worldly migration that is so
difficult to cross. Though assailed by decrepitude and death and disease,
he that understands Pradhana beholds with all equal eye that
Consciousness which dwells in all beings endued with consciousness.
Seeking the supreme seat, he then becomes utterly indifferent to all
(other) things. O best of men, I shall now impart instruction to thee,
agreeably to truth, concerning this. Do thou, O learned Brahmana,
understand in completeness that which constitutes the excellent
knowledge, as I declare it, of that indestructible seat.--'"
