12.231
Bhīṣma said.
Thus, having been addressed and especially praised, he began to ask about this instruction of the supreme sage, which is combined with liberation, virtue, and purpose.
Śuka said.
How does a person who has progeny, is learned in the Vedas, performs sacrifices, is aged, wise, and free from envy, attain Brahman that is not yet manifest and not established by tradition?
Tell me this, whether it is through austerity, celibacy, complete renunciation, intelligence, Sāṅkhya, or Yoga, as I have asked.
Concentration of the mind and the senses is also attained; by whatever means men achieve this, you ought to explain that. 12-231-4.
Vyāsa said.
No one attains perfection except through knowledge and austerity, restraint of the senses, and complete renunciation.
All the great elements, created earlier by the self-born Brahmā, are predominantly present in the bodies of living beings.
The body is formed from earth, the essence from water, the eyes are considered to be of light; air is the support of prāṇa and apāna; and ether is present in the spaces within embodied beings.
When traversing, Viṣṇu is present; in strength, Indra; in the stomach, Agni purifies what is eaten; in the ears, the directions; in the organ of hearing, in the tongue, speech, Sarasvatī.
The ears, skin, eyes, tongue, and nose—these five senses, described as means of perception, are the doors through which intake is accomplished.
The senses present to the mind the objects of sound, touch, form, taste, and smell, each as distinct.
The mind controls the senses as a charioteer controls well-trained horses; and the embodied self, dwelling in the heart, always directs the mind as well.
The mind is the lord of all these senses; in both restraint and release, the self of beings is likewise dependent on the mind.
The senses, their objects, innate nature, consciousness, mind, the vital breaths prāṇa and apāna, and the living being are always present in the bodies of embodied beings.
There is no support for sattva; the word 'guṇa' does not mean consciousness. Sattva indeed produces light, but never qualities.
Thus, the wise sage, by the mind, perceives the seventeenth self, enveloped in the body by sixteen qualities, as the self within the self.
This is not seen by the eye, nor by all the senses; only by a mind that is fully illumined does the great self become manifest.
One should perceive within one's own body that imperishable, bodiless principle which is devoid of sound, touch, form, taste, and smell, and is without senses.
He who perceives the unmanifest, the immortal residing in the manifest bodies among mortals, after departing from this world, becomes eligible for union with Brahman.
The wise see with equal vision a Brāhmaṇa endowed with knowledge and noble birth, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and even a dog-eater.
He is indeed the one great soul who dwells in all beings, both moving and unmoving, by whom all this is pervaded.
When one sees the self in all beings and all beings in the self, then the embodied self attains Brahman.
To the extent that one knows the self within oneself, to that extent the self is known in the supreme self. Whoever always knows thus becomes eligible for immortality.
Even the gods become bewildered on the path of one who is the self and well-wisher of all beings; seekers of the path of the pathless are confounded.
Just as the movement of birds in the sky or of an aquatic animal in water is not seen, so too is the path of the very great-souled one unseen.
Time indeed matures all beings within itself. But the one in whom time itself is matured, no one here knows.
It is not above, not across, not below, nor sideways again; it does not accept in the middle, nor does anyone accept it from anywhere.
All these worlds exist within; for them, there is nothing outside. Even if a thousand were to gather, it would be like arrows released from a bowstring.
Even if one had the speed of mind, one could not reach the end of the cause. Therefore, there is nothing subtler than the subtle, nor anything grosser than that.
He has hands and feet everywhere, eyes, heads, and faces everywhere, ears everywhere in the world; having pervaded everything, he abides.
That is indeed subtler than the atom and greater than the great. Abiding as the constant within all beings, it is not seen.
The self has a dual nature as imperishable and perishable; the perishable exists in all beings, while the divine is the immortal imperishable.
Having entered the city with nine gates, the soul, being self-controlled and self-possessed, is the lord of all beings, both stationary and moving.
The wise say that, by association, the loss, destruction, and alternatives of new things pertain to the bodies of the unborn; the state of a swan is attributed to those who see through (the truth).
The wise one, having realized the imperishable truth declared by the swan, abandons the cycle of birth and life.
