tter, without body, He
must be divested of all attributes, and in consequence of His being so,
how, indeed, can He have attributes of any kind? Space and other
attributes arise from the attributes of Sattwa and Rajas and Tamas, and
disappear ultimately in them. Thus the attributes arise from Prakriti.
Skin, flesh, blood, fat, bile, marrow, bones, and sinews,--these eight
that are made of Prakriti, know, O king, may sometimes be produced by the
vital seed alone (of the male). The Jiva-soul and the universe are said
to both partake of Prakriti characterised by the three attributes of
Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas. The Supreme Soul is different from both the
Jiva-soul and the universe. As the seasons though unendued with forms,
are nevertheless inferred from the appearance of particular fruits and
flowers, after the same manner, Prakriti, though formless, is inferred
from the attributes of Mahat and the rest that spring from it. In this
way from the existence of Chaitanya in the body, the Supreme Soul,
divested of all attributes whatever and perfectly stainless, is inferred.
Without beginning and destruction, without end, the overseer of all
things, and auspicious, that Soul, only in consequence of its identifying
itself with the body and other attributes, comes to be taken as invested
with attributes. Those persons that are truly conversant with attributes
know that only objects endued with attributes can have attributes but
that That which transcends all attributes can have none. When the
Jiva-soul conquers all attributes born of Prakriti and which it assumes
under error, only then does it behold the Supreme Soul. Only the highest
Rishis conversant with the Sankhya and the Yoga systems know that Supreme
Soul which Sankhya and Yogins and believers in all other systems say is
beyond the Understanding, which is regarded as Knower and endued with the
highest wisdom in consequence of its casting off all consciousness of
identification with Prakriti, which transcends the attribute of Ignorance
or Error, which is Unmanifest, which is beyond all attributes, which is
called the Supreme, which is dissociated from all attributes, which
ordains all things, which is Eternal and Immutable, which overrules
Prakriti and all the attributes born of Prakriti, and which, transcending
the four and twenty topics of enquiry, forms the twenty-fifth. When men
of knowledge, who stand in fear of birth, of the several conditions of
living consciousness, a