knowledge dwells has no real existence. The body,
therefore, is not the refuge of the knowledge.
Primordial Nature (Prakriti) having the three attributes
(of Goodness and Passion and Darkness) is the refuge
of the knowledge which exists only in the form of
a sound. The Soul also is not the refuge of the
knowledge. It is Desire that creates the knowledge.
Desire, however, never creates the three attributes.[956]
The man of wisdom, capable of subduing his senses,
beholds the seventeenth, viz., the Soul, as surrounded
by six and ten attributes, in his own knowledge by
the aid of the mind. The Soul cannot be beheld
with the aid of the eye or with that of all the senses.
Transcending all, the Soul becomes visible by only
the light of the mind’s lamp. Divested
of the properties of sound and touch and form, without
taste and scent, indestructible and without a body
(either gross or subtile) and without senses, it is
nevertheless beheld within the body. Unmanifest
and supreme, it dwells in all mortal bodies.
Following the lead of the preceptor and the Vedas,
he who beholds it hereafter becomes Brahma’s
self. They that are possessed of wisdom look
with an equal eye upon a Brahmana possessed of knowledge
and disciples, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a Chandala.[957]
Transcending all things, the Soul dwells in all creatures
mobile and immobile. Indeed, all things are pervaded
by it.[958] When a living creature beholds his own
Soul in all things, and all things in his own Soul,
he is said to attain to Brahma. One occupies
that much of the Supreme Soul as is commensurate with
what is occupied in one’s own soul by Vedic sound.[959]He
that can always realise the identity of all things
with his own self certainly attains to immortality.
The very gods are stupefied in the track of that trackless
man who constitutes himself the soul of all creatures,
who is engaged in the good of all beings, and who
desire to attain to (Brahma which is) the final refuge
(of all things).[960] Indeed, the track which is pursued
by men of knowledge is as visible as that of birds
in the sky or of fish in water. Time of its own
power, cooks all entities within itself. No one,
however, knows That in which Time, in its turn, is
itself cooked.[961] That (of which I speak) does not
occur above, or in the middle or below, or in transverse
or in any other direction. That is to tangible
entity; it is not to be found in any place.[962] All
these worlds are within That. There is nothing
in these worlds that exists out of that. Even
if one goes on ceaselessly with the celerity of a shaft
impelled from the bow-string, even if one goes on with
the speed of the mind, itself, one would not still
reach the end of that which is the cause of all this.[963]
That is so gross that there is nothing grosser.
His hands and feet extend everywhere. His eyes,
head, and face are everywhere. His ears are everywhere
in the universe. He exists overwhelming all things.
That is minuter than the minutest, that is the heart