immutable, undecaying, and immortal.  Men of knowledge attain to births that are very superior, and their place is faultless and undecaying, transcending the ken of the senses, free from ignorance, above birth and death, and full of light that dispels all kinds of darkness.  Thou hadst asked me about the nature of the Supreme residing in the Unmanifest, (viz., Purusha).  I shall tell thee, Listen to me, O king, Even when residing in Prakriti, He is said to reside in His own nature without partaking of the nature of Prakriti.[1650] Prakriti, O king, is inanimate and unintelligent.  When presided over by Purusha, then only can she create and destroy.

“’Janaka said, Both Prakriti and Purusha, O thou of great intelligence, are without beginning and without end.  Both of them are without form.  Both of them are undecaying.  Both of them, again, incomprehensible.  How then, O foremost of Rishis, can it be said that one of them is inanimate and unintelligent?  How, again, is the other said to be animate and intelligent?  And why is the latter called Kshetrajna?  Thou, O foremost of Brahmanas, art fully conversant with the entire religion of Emancipation.  I desire to hear in detail of the religion of Emancipation in its entirety.  Do thou discourse to me then of the existence and Oneness of Purusha, of his separateness from Prakriti, of the deities which attach to the body of the place to which embodied creatures repair when they die, and that place to which they may ultimately, in course of time, be able to go.  Tell me also of the Knowledge described in the Sankhya system, and of the Yoga system separately.  It behoveth thee also to speak of the premonitory symptoms of death, O best of men.  All these topics are well known to thee even as an (emblic) myrobalan in thy hand!’”

SECTION CCCXVI

“’Yajnavalkya said, That which is without attributes, O son, can never be explained by ascribing attributes to it.  Listen, however, to me as I expound to thee what is possessed of attributes and what is devoid of them.  High-souled Munis conversant with the truth regarding all the topics or principles say that when Purusha seizes attributes like a crystal catching the reflection of a red flower, he comes to be called as possessed of attributes; but when freed from attributes like the crystal freed from reflection, he comes to be viewed in his real nature, that is, as beyond all attributes.[1651] Unmanifest Prakriti is by her nature endued with attributes.  She cannot transcend them.  Destitute of intelligence by nature, she becomes attached to attributes.  Unmanifest Prakriti cannot know anything, while Purusha, by his nature, is possessed of knowledge,—­There is nothing higher than myself,—­even this is what Purusha is always conscious of.  For this reason the unmanifest (or Prakriti), although naturally inanimate and unintelligent, still becomes animate and intelligent in consequence of her union with Purusha