while other scriptures declare the very reverse of this).  If, having attained to this high state, the Yatis continue to live in consciousness, it would seem.  O king, that the religion of Pravritti is superior.  If, again, consciousness disappears from the emancipate state and one who has become emancipate only resembles a person sunk in dreamless slumber, then nothing can be more improper than to say that there is really no consciousness in Emancipation (for of all that happens in dreamless slumber is that one’s consciousness is temporarily overshadowed and suspended, but never lost, for it returns when one awakes from that slumber).’[1593]

“Bhishma said, ’However difficult it may be to answer it, the question which thou hast asked, O son, is proper.  Verily, the question is of such a kind that even they that are possessed of great learning become stupefied in answering it, O chief of Bharata’s race.  For all that, hear what the truth is as expounded by me.  The high-souled followers of Kapila have set their high understandings on this point.  The senses of knowledge, O King, planted in the bodies of embodied creatures, are employed in their respective functions of perception.  They are the instruments of the Soul, for it is through them that subtile Being perceives.[1594] Disunited with the Soul, the senses are like lumps of wood, and are without doubt, destroyed (in respect of the functions they serve) like the froth that is seen on the bosom of the ocean.[1595] When the embodied creature, O scorcher of foes, sinks into sleep along with his senses, the subtile Soul then roves among all subjects like the wind through space.[1596] The subtile Soul, during slumber, continues to see (all forms) and touch all objects of touch, O king, and taken in other perceptions, as well as when it is awake.  In consequence of their inability to act without their director, the senses, during sleep, all become extinguished in their respective places (and lose their powers) like snakes deprived of poison.[1597] At such times, the subtile Soul, repairing into the respective place of all the senses, without doubt, discharges all their functions.[1598] All the qualities of Sattwa, all the attributes of the Under-standing, O Bharata, as also those of Mind, and space, and Wind, O thou of righteous soul, and all the attributes of liquid substances, of Water, O Partha, and Of Earth,—­these senses with these qualities,—­O Yudhishthira, which inhere to Jiva-souls, are along with the Jiva-soul itself, overwhelmed by the Supreme Soul or Brahma.  Acts also, good and bad, overwhelm that Jiva-soul.  Like disciples waiting upon their preceptor with reverence, the senses too wait upon the Jiva-soul transcends Prakriti, it attains to Brahma that is without change, that is highest, that is Narayana, that is beyond all pairs of opposites, and that transcends Prakriti.  Freed from both merit and demerit, the Jiva-soul entering the Supreme Soul which is divested of all attributes,