SECTION XXXIX
"Brahmana said, 'The qualities are incapable of being declared as
completely separate from one another. Passion and Goodness and Darkness
are seen existing in a state of union. They are attached to one another.
They depend on one another. They have one another for their refuge. They
likewise follow one another. As long as goodness exists, so long does
Passion exist. There is no doubt in this. As long as Darkness and
Goodness exist, so long does Passion exist. They make their journey
together, in union, and moving collectively. They, verily, move in body,
when they act with cause or without cause. Of all these which act with
one another, however, much they may differ in their development, the
manner in which their increase and diminution take place will now be
declared. There where Darkness exists in an increased measure, in the
lower creatures (for example), Passion exists in a smaller measure and
Goodness in a measure that is still less. There where Passion exists in a
copious measure, in creatures of middle course, Darkness exists in a
smaller measure and Goodness in a measure that is still less. There where
Goodness exists in a copious measure, in creatures of upward courses,
Darkness should be known to exist in a small measure and Passion in a
measure that is still less. Goodness is the spring that causes the
modifications of the senses. It is the great enlightener. No duty has
been laid down that is higher than Goodness. They who abide in Goodness
proceed upwards. They who abide in Passion remain in the middle. They who
abide in Darkness, being characterised by qualities that are low, sink
downwards. Darkness occurs in the Sudra; Passion in the Kshatriya; and
Goodness, which is the highest, in the Brahmana. The three qualities
exist even thus in the three orders. Even from a distance, the three
qualities of darkness and Goodness and Passion, are seen to exist in a
state of union and more collectively. They are never seen in a state of
separation.[110] Beholding the sun rising, men of evil deeds become
inspired with fear. Travellers on their way become afflicted with heat,
and suffer distress. The Sun is Goodness developed, men of evil deeds
represent Darkness; the heat which travellers on their way feel is said
to be a quality of Passion. The sun representing light is Goodness; the
heat is the quality of Passion; the shading (or eclipse) of the sun on
Parvana days should be known to represent Darkness. Even thus, the three
qualities exist in all luminous bodies. They act by turns in diverse
places in diverse ways. Among immobile objects, the quality of Darkness
exists in a very large measure. The qualities appertaining to Passion are
those properties of theirs which undergo constant changes. Their
oleaginous attributes appertain to Goodness.[111] The Day should be
understood as threefold. The Night has been ordained to be threefold. So
also are fortnight, months, years, seasons, and conjunctions.[112] The
gifts that are wide are threefold. Threefold is sacrifice that flows.
Threefold are the worlds; threefold the deities; threefold is knowledge;
and threefold the path or end. The past, the Present. and the Future;
Religion, Wealth. and Pleasure. Prana, Apana, and Udana; these also are
fraught with the three qualities. Whatever object exists in this world,
everything in it is fraught with the three qualities. The three qualities
act by turns in all things and in all circumstances. Verily, the three
qualities always act in an unmanifest form. The creation of those three,
viz., Goodness, Passion, and Darkness is eternal. The unmanifest,
consisting of the three qualities, is said to be darkness, unperceived,
holy, Constant. unborn, womb, eternal. Nature, change or modification,
destruction, Pradhana, production, and absorption, undeveloped, not small
(i.e., vast), unshaking, immovable, fixed, existent, and non-existent.
All these names should be known by those who meditate on matters
connected with the soul. That person who accurately knows all the names
of the unmanifest, and the qualities, as also the pure operations (of the
qualities), is well conversant with the truth about all distinctions and
freed from the body, becomes liberated from all the qualities and enjoys
absolute happiness.'"
