Mahābhārata

M. N. Dutt: Bhishma said 'All immobile and mobile beings, divided into four classes, have been described to be of unmanifest birth and unmanifest death. Existing only in the unmanifest Soul, the Mind is said to possess the attributes of the unmanifest.

M. N. Dutt: As a vast tree lies within a small unblown Ashvatha flower and is seen only when it comes out, so birth takes place from what is unmanifest.

M. N. Dutt: A piece of iron, which is inanimate runs towards a piece of loadstone. Likewise, inclinations and propensities due to natural instincts, and all else, run towards the Soul in a 11cw lifc.

M. N. Dutt: Indeed, as those propensities bom of Darkness and Ignorance, and inactive in their nature, are united with the Soul when re-born, similarly, those other inclinations and aspirations of the Soul that have their look directed towards Brahma become united with it, coming to it directly from Brahima itself.

M. N. Dutt: Neither earth, nor sky, nor heaven, nor things, nor the vital airs, nor virtue and vice, nor anything else, existed before, except the Intelligence-Soul. Nor have they any necessary connection with even the Intelligence-Soul corrupted by Darkness.

M. N. Dutt: The Soul is eternal. It is indestructible. It is in every creature. It is the cause of the Mind. It is without qualities. This universe before us is due to Darkness or Ignorance. The Soul's apprehensions of form, etc., are due to past desires.

M. N. Dutt: The Soul, when it becomes endued with desires, engages in acts. On account of that condition, this vast wheel of existence revolves with beginning and without end.

M. N. Dutt: The Understanding, is the nave of that wheel. The body with the senses, forms its spokes. The perceptions and acts are its circumference. Urged by on the quality of Darkness, the Soul presides over it.

M. N. Dutt: Like oilmen pressing oilseeds pressing oilseeds in their machine, the consequences born of Darkness, assailing the universe which is moistened by Darkness, press or grind it in that wheel.

M. N. Dutt: In that succession of births, the individual Soul, seized by the idea of Ego in consequence of desire, performs acts. In the union of cause and effect, those acts again become fresh causes.

M. N. Dutt: Effects do not enter into causes. Nor do causes enter into effects. Time is the instrumental in the production of effects.

M. N. Dutt: The primordial essences, and their changes endued with causes, exist unitedly, on account of their being always presided over by the Soul.

M. N. Dutt: Like dust following the wind that moves it, the individual Soul, shorn of body, but endued still with inclinations born of Darkness and Ignorance with principles of causes formed by pristine deeds, moves on, following the direction of the Supreme Soul.

M. N. Dutt: The Soul, however, is never affected by those inclinations and propensities. Nor are these affected by the Soul that is superior to them. The wind, which is naturally pure, is never sullied by the dust it carries.

M. N. Dutt: As the wind is separate from the dust it carries away, so, the wise man should know, is the connection between life and the Soul. No one should think that the Soul, on account of its seeming union with the body and the senses and the other inclinations and beliefs and unbeliefs, is really endued therewith as its necessary and absolute qualities. On the other hand, the Soul should be considered as existing in its own nature.

M. N. Dutt: Thus did the divine Rishi remove the doubt that had taken possession of his disciple's mind. Inspite of all this, people depend upon means consisting of acts and scriptural rites for removing misery and acquiring happiness.

M. N. Dutt: Seeds that are burnt by fire do not put forth sprouts. Likewise, if everything that produces misery be consumed by the fire of true knowledge, the Soul is freed from the obligation of re-birth in the world.