that one endued therewith succeeds in understanding
the person that is conversant with Brahma. As
regards Emancipation, it is entirely dependent upon
Narayana. Hence it is that persons striving after
Emancipation are regarded as made up of the attribute
of Sattwa. By thinking of Purushottama the foremost
of Beings, the man that is devoted with his whole
soul to Narayana, acquires great wisdom. Those
persons that are endued with wisdom, that have betaken
themselves to the practices of Yatis and the religion
of Emancipation,—those persons of quenched
thirst, always find that Hari favours them with the
fruition of their desire.[1905] That man subject to
birth (and death) upon whom Hari casts a kind eye should
be known as endued with the attribute of Sattwa and
devoted to the acquisition of Emancipation. The
religion followed by a person that is devoted with
his whole soul to Narayana is regarded as similar
or equal in merit to the system of the Sankhyas.
By adopting that religion one attains to the highest
end and attains to Emancipation which has Narayana
for its soul. That person upon whom Narayana
looks with compassion succeeds in becoming awakened.[1906]
No one, O king, can become awakened through his own
wishes. That nature which partakes of both Rajas
and Tamas is said to be mixed. Hari never casts
a kind eye upon the person subject to birth (and death)
that is endued with such a mixed nature and that has,
on that account, the principle of Pravritti in him.
Only Brahma, the Grandsire of the worlds, looks upon
the person that is subject to birth and death because
of his mind being overwhelmed with the two inferior
attributes of Rajas and Tamas.[1907] Without doubt,
the deities and the Rishis are wedded to the attributes
of Sattwa, O best of kings. But then they that
are divested of that attribute in its subtile form
are always regarded to be of mutable nature".[1908]
Janamejaya said, “How can one that is fraught
with the principle of change succeed in attaining
to that Purushottama (the foremost of Purusha)?
Do tell me all this, which is, no doubt, known to thee.
Do thou discourse to me also of Pravritti in due order.”
Vaisampayana said, “That which is the twenty-fifth
(in the enumeration of topics as made in the Sankhya
system) viz., when it becomes able to abstain
entirely from acts, succeeds in attaining to the Purushottama
which is exceedingly subtile, which is invested with
the attribute of Sattwa (in its subtile form), and
which is fraught with the essences symbolised by three
letters of the alphabet (viz., A, U, and M). The
Sankhya system, the Aranyaka-Veda, and the Pancharatra
scriptures, are all one and the same and form parts
of one whole. Even this is the religion of those
that are devoted with their whole souls to Narayana,
the religion that has Narayana for its essence.[1909]
As waves of the ocean, rising from the ocean, rush
away from it only to return to it in the end, even
so diverse kinds of knowledge, springing from Narayana,