मोक्षधर्म पर्व — ज्ञान और कर्म सम्बन्धी विधान

Shuka said The injunctions of the Vedas are twofold. They once lay down the command,Do all acts. They again declare renounce acts.-I ask-where do persons go by the help of Knowledge and where by the help of acts.

I wish to hear this. Do tell me this. Indeed, these injunctions about knowledge and acts are dissimilar and even contradictory.

Bhishma said Thus addressed, the son of Parasara said to his son,-I shall explain to you the two paths, viz., the destructible and the indestructible, resting respectively upon acts and knowledge. Listen with rapt attention, O child, to me as I point out to you the place which is reached by one with the help of knowledge, and that other place which is reached with the help of acts. The difference between these two places is as great as the endless firmament.

The question which you have asked me has given me such pain as an athestic talk gives to a religious man.

These are the two paths upon which the Vedas are settled: the duties (Acts) indicated by action and those based on renunciation described so beautifully.By acts a living creature is destroyed. By knowledge, whoever, he becomes free. Therefore, Yogins, who see the other sides of the ocean of life, never perform acts.

Through acts one is compelled to take rebirth, after death which a body composed of the sixteen ingredients. Through knowledge, however, one becomes metamorphosed into that which is Eternal, is Eternal, Unmanifest, and Immutable.

Little-witted persons speak highly of acts. On account of this they have to assume bodies ceaselessly.

Those men, who have keen perceptions about duties and who have attained to that high understanding, never speak highly of acts even as persons, who depend for their drinking water upon the supply of streams never speak highly of wells and tanks.

The fruit of acts consist of pleasure and pain, of existence and non-existence. By knowledge one attains to that where there is no occasion for grief; where one becomes freed from both birth and death; where one not subject to decrepitude; where one gets over the state of conscious existence; where is Brahma which is Supreme, Unmanifest, immutable, ever-existent, imperceptible, above the reach of pain, immortal, and transcending destruction; where all become freed from the influence of all pairs of opposites as also of wish or purpose. Raching that stage, they regard everything equally, become universal friends and devoted to the well being of all creatures. There is a huge gulf, O son, between one given to knowledge and one given to acts.

Know that without suffering destruction, the man of knowledge exists for ever like the moon on the last day of the dark fortnight existing in a subtile form.

The great Rishi had described this more fully. Regarding the man given to acts his nature may be inferred from seeing the new moon which appears like a bent thread in the sky.

Know, O son, that the man of acts is born again with a body with eleven elements for its component parts which are the results of modification, and with a subtile form which represents a total of sixteen.

The god who resides in that (material) form, like a drop of water on a lotus leaf, should be known as Kshetrajna (Soul) which is Eternal and which gets over by Yoga both the mind and the understanding.

Goodness, darkness, and ignorance are the qualities of the Understanding. The understanding is the attribute of the individual soul living within the body. The individual soul, in its turn, emanates froin the Supreme Soul.

The body with the soul is said to be the attribute of individual soul. It is individual soul which acts and causes all bodies to live. He who has created the seven worlds is said by those who are acquainted with what is Kshatra to be above individual soul.