When Jiva, who is endued with Chetana and Unintelligent
Prakriti, loses all Consciousness of a distinct or
individual Self, then does he, losing his multifariousness,
resumes his Oneness. O ruler of Mithila, when
Jiva, who is found to be in union with happiness and
misery and who is seldom free from the consciousness
of Self, succeeds in attaining to a similarity with
the Supreme Soul which is beyond the reach of the understanding,
then does he becomes freed from virtue and vice.
Indeed, when Jiva, attaining to the twenty-sixth which
is Unborn and Puissant and which is dissociated from
all attachments, succeeds in comprehending it thoroughly,
he himself becomes possessed of puissance and entirely
casts off the Unmanifest or Prakriti. In consequence
of understanding the twenty-sixth, the four and twenty
principles seems to Jiva to be unsubstantial or of
no value. I have thus told thee, O sinless one,
according to the indication of the Srutis, the nature
of the Unintelligent or Prakriti, and of Jiva, so
also of that which is Pure Knowledge viz., the
Supreme Soul, agreeable to the truth. Guided by
the scriptures, variety and oneness are thus to be
understood. The difference between the gnat and
the Udumvara, or that between the fish and water,
illustrates the difference between the Jiva-soul and
the Supreme Soul.[1636] The Multiplicity and Oneness
of these two are then understood in this way.
This is called Emancipation, viz., this comprehension
or knowledge of oneself as something distinct from
Unintelligent or Unmanifest Prakriti. The twenty-fifth,
which resides in the bodies of living creatures, should
be emancipated by making him know the Unmanifest or
the Supreme Soul which transcends the understanding.
Indeed, that twenty-fifth is capable of attaining
to Emancipation in this way only and not through any
other means, it is certain. Though really different
from the Kshetra in which he resides for the time
being, he partakes of the nature of that Kshetra in
consequence of his union with it.[1637] Uniting with
what is Pure, he becomes Pure. Uniting with the
Intelligent, he becomes Intelligent. By uniting,
O foremost of men, with one that is Emancipate, he
becomes Emancipated. By uniting with one that
has been freed from attachments of every kind, he
becomes freed from all attachments. By uniting
with one striving after Emancipation, he himself,
partaking of the nature of his companion, strives after
Emancipation. By uniting with one of pure deeds
he becomes pure and of pure deeds and endued with
blazing effulgence. By uniting with one of unstained
soul, he becomes of unstained soul himself. By
uniting with the One independent Soul, he becomes
One and Independent. Uniting with One that is
dependent on One’s own Self, he becomes of the
same nature and attains to Independence.