here be any direct evidence of the existence of Emancipation, do thou,
speak of it to me. We are desirous of attaining to Emancipation. Indeed,
we wish to attain to That which is auspicious, bodiless, not subject to
decrepitude, eternal beyond the ken of the senses, and having nothing
superior to it.'

"'"Vasishtha said, 'What thou sayest about the indications of the Vedas and
the other scriptures (in respect of the matter) is even so. Thou takest
those indications in the way in which they should be taken. Thou bearest,
however, in thy understanding, only the texts of the Vedas and the other
scriptures. Thou art not, O monarch, truly conversant with the real
meaning of those texts. That person who bears in his understanding merely
the texts of the Vedas and the other scriptures without being conversant
with the true sense or meaning of those texts, bears them fruitlessly.
Indeed, one who holds the contents of a work in memory without
comprehending their meaning is said to bear an useless burden. He,
however, who is conversant with the true meaning of a treatise, is said
to have studied that treatise to purpose. Questioned regarding the
meaning of a text, it behoveth one to communicate that meaning which he
has comprehended by a careful study. That person of dull intelligence who
refuses to expound the meanings of texts in the midst of a conclave of
the learned, that person of foolish understanding, never succeeds in
expounding the meaning correctly.[1618] An ignorant person, going to
expound the true meaning of treatises, incurs ridicule. Even those
possessed of a knowledge of the Soul have to incur ridicule on such
occasions (if what they go to explain has not been acquired by study).
Listen now to me, O monarch, as to how the subject of Emancipation has
been explained (by preceptors to disciple from days of old) among
highsouled persons conversant with the Sankhya and the Yoga systems of
philosophy. That which the Yogins behold is precisely that which the
Sankhyas strive after to attain. He who sees the Sankhya and the Yoga
systems to be one and the same is said to be endued with intelligence.
Skin, flesh, blood, fat, bile, marrow, and sinews, and these senses (of
both knowledge and action), about which thou wert speaking unto me,
exist. Objects flow from objects; the senses from the senses. From body
one obtains a body, as a seed is obtained from seed. When the Supreme
Being is without senses, without seed, without ma