body?  How does Jiva, exerting himself, bear the body?  Of what colour and of what kind is the body in which he dwells again (leaving a particular body)?  O holy one, it behoveth thee to tell me all this accurately, O sinless one,—­even thus was I interrogated by that learned Brahmana, O Madhava.  I replied unto him, O thou of mighty arms, after the manner I myself had heard, O chastiser of all foes.  As one placing some precious object in one’s store-room should keep one’s mind on it, so, placing the mind within one’s own body, one should then, restraining all the senses, seek after the Soul, avoiding all heedlessness.  One would, becoming always assiduous in this way and gratified with one’s own self, within a very short time attain to that Brahma by beholding which one would become conversant with Pradhana.[39] He is not capable of being seized by the eye; nor even by all the senses.[40] It is only with the lamp of the mind that great Soul can be seen.  He has hands and feet on all sides; he has ears on all sides; he dwells, pervading all things in the world.[41] Jiva beholds the Soul as extracted from the body (like the stalk from a blade of Saccharum Munja, when knowledge comes).  Then casting off Brahma as invested with form, by holding the mind in the body, he beholds Brahma as freed from all attributes.[42] He sees the Soul with his mind, smiling as it were at the time.  Depending upon that Brahma, he then attains to Emancipation in me.[43] O foremost of regenerate ones, all this mystery has now been declared by me.  I ask thy permission, for I shall leave this spot.  Do thou (also) go withersoever thou pleasest.  Thus addressed by me, O Krishna, on that occasion, that disciple of mine, endued with austere penances, that Brahmana of rigid vows, went away according to his pleasure.

“Vasudeva continued, ’That best of Brahmanas, O son of Pritha, having said these words unto me, on that occasion, properly relating to the religion of Emancipation, disappeared then and there.  Has this discourse been heard by thee, O son of Pritha, with mind directed solely towards it?  Even this was what thou didst hear on that occasion while thou wert on thy car.  It is my opinion, O son of Pritha, that this is difficult of being comprehended by one whose understanding is confused, or who has acquired no wisdom by study, or who eats food incompatible with his body, or whose Soul is not purified.[44] O chief of Bharata’s race, this is a great mystery among the deities that has been declared (to thee).  At no time or place, O son of Pritha, has this been heard by man in this world.  O sinless one, no other man than thyself is deserving of hearing it.  It is not, at this time, capable of being easily understood by one whose inner soul is confused.  The world of the deities is filled, O son of Kunti, with those who follow the religion of actions.  The cessation of the mortal form (by practising the religion of inaction) is not agreeable to the deities.[45] That