The Soul and the three Gunas

Manu said The mind united with the senses, remembers after a long time the impressions of objects received in the past. When the action of the senses is suspended, the Supreme Soul in the form in the Understanding, exists in its own true nature.

When the Soul does not in the least regard all those objects for their simultaniety or otherwise in point of time but collecting them from all directions holds them before it together, it necessarily happens that he wanders among all incongruous things. He is, therefore, the Witness. Hence the Soul put in body is something having a distinct and independent existence.

There is Rajas, there is Tamas, and there is Satva the third. There arc again three conditions of the understanding, viz., waking, dreaming, and sound sleep. The Soul perceives the pleasures and pains, which are all contradictory, of those states, and which partake of the nature of the three-fold qualities first mentioned. The Soul enters the senses like the wind entering the fire in piece of wood.

One cannot see the forın of the Soul by his eye, nor can the sense of touch, amongst the senses, apprehend it. The Soul, is not, again, perceived by the ear. It may, however, be seen by the help of the Shrutis and the instructions of the wise. As for senses, that particular senses which apprehends it, loses upon such apprehension its existence as a sense.

The senses cannot themselves apprehend their respective forms. The Soul is omniscient. It sees all things. Being omniscient, it is the Soul that sees the senses.

Nobody has seen the other side of the Himavat mountains, nor the reverse of the moon's disc. Yet it cannot be said that they do not exist.

Likewise though never apprehended by the senses, yet nobody can say that the Soul, which dwells in all creatures, which is subtile, and which has knowledge for its essence, does not exist.

People see the world reflected on the inoon's disc in the shape of spots. Though seeing, they do not know that it is the world that is so reflected there. Such is the knowledge of the Soul. That knowledge must come of itself. The Soul depends upon the Soul itself.

Reflecting on the formlessness of visible objects before birth and after destruction, wise men behold by the help of intelligence, the forinlessness of objects that have visible forins. Similarly although the Sun's motion cannot be seen, yet persons, by watching its rising and Setting, conclude that the sun has motion.

Likewise learned and wise men see the Soul by the help of the lamp of intelligence, though it is at a great distance from them, and seek to merge the fivefold elements, which are near, into Brahma.

Verily, an object cannot be performed without the application of means. Fishermen catch fish by means of nets made of strings.

Animals are caught by employing animals as the agents. Birds are caught by employing birds as the agents. Elephants are taken by employing elephants. In this way the Soul may be apprehended by the principle of Knowledge.

It is heard that only a snake can see a snake's legs. Likewise one sees, through Knowledge, the Soul encased in subtle form and living within the gross body.

People cannot, through their senses, know : the senses. Likewisc mere Intelligence at its highest cannot see the Soul which is supreme.

The moon, on the fifteenth day of the dark fortnight, cannot be seen on account of its form being hidden. It cannot be said, however, that destruction overtakes it. Such is the case with the Soul living in the body.

On the fifteenth day of the dark fortnight, the gross body of the moon is seen. Similarly the Soul, when freed from the body, cannot be apprehended.

As gaining another point in the sky, the moon begins to shine once more, similarly the soul, acquiring a new body, begins to manifest itself once more.

The birth, growth, and disappearance of the moon can all be directly perceived by the eye. These phenomena, however, belong to the gross form of that luminary. The like are not the attributes of the Soul,

The moon, when it appears after its disappearance on the fifteenth day of the dark fortnight, is considered as the same luminary that had become invisible. Similarly despite the changes represented by birth, growth, and age, a person is considered as the same individual without any doubt of his identity.

It is not distinctly seen how Rabu approaches and leaves the moon. Likewise the Soul cannot be seen how it leaves one body and enters another.

Rahu becomes visible only when it exists with the sun or the moon. Likewise the Soul is apprehended only when it exists with the body.

When freed from the sun or the moon, Rahu is no longer seen. Likewise the Soul, freed from the body, can no longer be seen.

Then again, as the moon, even when it disappears on the fifteenth day of the dark fortnight, is not left by the constellations and the stars, the Soul also, even though separated from the body, is not deserted by the fruits of the acts it has won in that body.