succeed in beholding That which transcends the four and twenty topics or
principles.[1625] Jiva in reality is that very Soul which transcends
Prakriti and is beyond the four and twenty topics. When he succeeds in
knowing that Supreme Soul by dissociating himself from Prakriti, he then
becomes identifiable with the Supreme Soul. I have now told thee every
thing about the Sankhya System truly. Those who are conversant with this
philosophy succeed in attaining to tranquillity. Indeed, as
men whose understanding are subject to error have direct
cognisance of Brahma. They that succeed in attaining to that state have
never to come back to this world after the dissolution of their bodies;
while as regards those that are said to be emancipate in this life,
puissance, and that indescribable felicity which attaches itself to
Samadhi, and immutability, become theirs, in consequence of their having
attained to the nature of the Indestructible.[1626] They who behold this
universe as many (instead of seeing it as one and uniform) are said to
see incorrectly. These men are blind to Brahma. O chastiser of foes, such
persons have repeatedly to come back into the world and assume bodies (in
diverse orders of Being). They who are conversant with all that has been
said above become possessed of omniscience, and accordingly when they
pass from this body no longer become subject to the control of any more
physical frames. All things, (or the entire universe), have been said to
be the result of the Unmanifest. The Soul, which is the twenty-fifth,
transcends all things. They who know the Soul have no fear of returning
to the world.'"'"

SECTION CCCVIII

"'"Vasishtha said, 'I have thus far discoursed to thee on the Sankhya
philosophy. Listen now to me as I tell thee what is Vidya (knowledge) and
what is Avidya (Ignorance), one after the other. The learned say that
that Prakriti, which is fraught with the attributes of Creation and
Destruction, is called Avidya; while Purusha, who is freed from the
attributes of Creation and Destruction and who transcends the four and
twenty topics or principles, is called Vidya. Listen to me first as I
tell thee what is Vidya among successive sets of other things, as
expounded in the Sankhya philosophy. Among the senses of knowledge and
those of action, the senses of knowledge are said to constitute what is
known as Vidya. Of the senses of knowledge and their object, the former
constitute Vidya as has bee