As one is not enlightened, one considers the atman that is imperishable, to be perishable.
Thus, owing to the state of not being enlightened and because unenlightened persons are resorted to, the soul attains to thousands of crores (billions) of births ending with
its downfall. It takes up thousands of births among the lower species of creatures or in the region of gods.
Owing to the state of not being enlightened, the person of evil intellect is being carried away in a thousand ways like the image of the moon in the current of water. Do also
know that the moon is eternally possessed of sixteen digits, but the ignorant one thinks it grows (or declines) day by day. He is born again and again for ever.
The sixteenth digit is subtle. Let it be considered as the real moon. This digit is not consumed by deities. It remains for ever.
After overcoming ‘I-ness’, O excellent King, an enlightened one joins the deities. As Prakrti has three gunas, he is also Triguna (endowed with three gunas), as he is one
with Prakrti.
Janaka said:
The relationship between the two, the Imperishable and the Perishable, is to be wished for. It is essential that there should be a relationship between the two. The
relationship between a woman and a man (is described here).
Without a man no woman conceives. Without a woman no man is able to evolve a form.
In all types of living beings, the couple (male and female) evolves a new form by means of mutual contact. The new form evolved will have the features of both the male and the female.
For the sake of pleasure, the two will have intimate contact during the prescribed period after menstruation, and a new form having the characteristics of those two will be evolved.
I shall explain what constitute the characteristic features of the man and what of the woman who becomes the mother. O Brahmin! We hear that the bone, sinews and the
marrow are derived from the father, and the skin, flesh and blood from the mother. O excellent Brahmin! It is thus that the matter is explained in the Veda and the scriptures.
What is mentioned in the Veda is authoritative, so also is what is mentioned in the scriptures! The Veda and the scriptures are eternal authorities.
In the same manner (as in regard to a man and a woman), Prakrti and Purusa have perpetual contact and hence, O holy Sir, the function of salvation does not exist. Or,
should salvation be explained as something arising later on? Do explain this to me. You are always sought after by me directly.
Desirous of salvation, we seek to attain to the soul (atman) that is free from ailment, that cannot be conquered that is free from old age, that is eternal, that is beyond the
purview of sense-organs and that has no other overlord.
Vasistha said:
What your Highness said quoting the example from the Veda and the scriptures is quite apt. I shall add that you are a person who understands the true principle.
O King! You hold the texts of both the Veda and the other scriptures. Be the person who understands the essence of the texts correctly.
If a person is interested only in holding the texts of the Veda and the other scriptures but is not conversant with their real meaning and principles, it is in vain that he holds
those texts.
He who does not understand the meaning of those texts is merely a carrier of a burden. The acquisition of the texts is not in vain in regard to a person who is conversant with the meaning and principles of the texts.
On being asked, only a person like me is competent to state the meaning of a text. Owing to true understanding, he alone grasps the correct meaning.
If a person of imperfect intellect is not eager to understand the true meaning of the texts, how can that person of imperfect knowledge explain the texts with confidence?
If a person who has not understood the basic principles of a scriptural text begins to explain it out of greed or arrogance, he is a sinner and he will fall into hell.
A person of loopholes (imperfect knowledge) will never explain the text truthfully and confidently as he is neither self-possessed nor conversant with the meaning and basic
principles of the text.
O great King! Therefore, listen how this is viewed actually by the noble-souled followers of Saamkhya and Yoga systems.
Whatever the followers of the Yoga system see (and understand), the Saamkhyas, too, follow. He who sees the identity of the Saamkhya and the Yoga systems is wise.
Skin, flesh, blood, bile, marrow, bone and sinews, O dear One, can be perceived by the sense-organs, as Your Highness has already mentioned.
A substance is evolved out of another substance and a sense-organ is produced from another sense-organ. One attains to a body from another body and a seed from
another seed.
How can there be gunas in the great atman because it is devoid of gunas? How can this embodied soul devoid of sense-organs have the gunas? How can there be gunas in a soul that is meta-physical?
Gunas are produced from gunas and they cease to exist there itself. In the same manner, the gunas arising out of Prakrti are produced from Prakrti, and they end therein.
Skin, flesh, blood, fat, bile, bone-marrow, sinew and semen are the eight (attributes of a woman). The symbol of a woman is Prakrti. But Prakrti is male as well as female.
This is called Vayu (wind), Puman (man) and Rasa (Juice).
Prakrti is devoid of any symbols. It is perceived through the symbols born of itself in the same way as flowers and fruits, as the formless things are perceived among things
with form. In the same manner, the symbol is perceived through inference. Among the principles (categories of the Saamkhya and the Yoga systems) the twenty-fifth
principle, O dear One, is of fixed nature.
It has neither beginning nor end; it is infinite; it observes everything; but it is isolated. It is due to the identification through the gunas that it is called Guna.
The gunas co-exist with the Guna as One. How can there be gunas in One without gunas? Hence those people who look at gunas know thus.
When the soul identifies itself with the gunas belonging to Prakrti, it is one with gunas, and observes the different gunas.
The wise men that explain that Saamkhya and Yoga are beyond intellect are highly intelligent. They call that Isvara when it is manifest through its gunas. They call That
Isvara without guna, the perpetual presiding deity.
Scholars who are expert in Saamkhya and Yoga and who seek the Supreme Soul understand the twenty-five principles (including Purusa) constituted by Prakrti and gunas.
