s, forms.
Men not conversant with Adhyatma succeed not in beholding what is above
these. Having withdrawn the tongue from tastes, the nose from scents, the
ears from touch, and the eyes from forms, one succeeds in beholding one's
own self (as independent of the senses and the mind and, therefore, of
attributes).[665] It hath been said that that which is the Cause of the
actor, the act, the material with which the act is done, the place and
the time of the act, and the inclinations and propensities in respect of
happiness and misery, is called the Self (or Soul). That which pervades
everything, which does everything (assuming the forms of living
creatures), that which exists in the universe even as the mantras
declare,[666] that which is the cause of all, that which is the highest
of the high, and that which is One without a second and does all things,
is the Cause. Everything else is effect. It is seen that a person, in
consequence of the acts performed by him, obtains results both good and
evil, which (though apparently incompatible with each other, still) dwell
together in harmony. Indeed, as the good and evil fruits born of their
own acts dwell together in the bodies of creatures which are their
refuge, even so Knowledge dwells in the body.[667] As a lighted lamp,
while burning, discovers other objects before it, even so the five senses
which are like lamps set on high trees, find out their respective objects
when lighted by Knowledge.[668] As the various ministers of a king,
uniting together, give him counsel, even so the five senses that are in
the body are all subservient to Knowledge. The latter is superior to all
of them. As the flames of fire, the current of the wind, the rays of the
sun, and the waters of rivers, go and come repeatedly, even so the bodies
of embodied creatures are going and coming repeatedly.[669] As a person
by taking up an axe cannot, by cutting open a piece of wood, find either
smoke or fire in it, even so one cannot, by cutting open the arms and
feet and stomach of a person, see the principle of knowledge, which, of
course, has nothing in common with the stomach, the arms and the feet. As
again, one beholds both smoke and fire in wood by rubbing it against
another piece, so a person of well-directed intelligence and wisdom, by
uniting (by means of yoga) the senses and the soul, may view the Supreme
Soul which, of course, exists in its own nature.[670] As in the midst of
a dream one beholds o