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Vasiṣṭha said.
Thus, due to lack of awakening, the unawakened soul continues to follow, and from one body, it enters thousands of bodies likewise.
Sometimes, among thousands of animal births, and even among the gods, one is born due to the conjunction with qualities and also due to the loss of those qualities.
From being human, one attains heaven; from heaven, one is born as a human again; and from being human, one attains the endless state of hell.
Just as a silkworm always envelops itself with threads, so too does a person without qualities become bound by qualities.
Duality arises and is resolved in those wombs here; in diseases of the head, eyes, toothache, and throat afflictions.
This is also effective in dropsy, piles, fever, swelling, cholera, leucoderma, leprosy, burns, freckles, and epilepsy.
The various natural dualities that arise in bodies, and others as well, this self also considers as its own. From pride, it likewise claims good deeds as its own.
Durvasa, who wore a single garment, always lay below, sometimes lying like a frog, and sometimes seated in the hero posture.
Wearing bark garments, sleeping and sitting in the open sky, as well as on beds of bricks and thorns, are described here.
Lying on ashes or stone slabs, smearing the body with earth, lying in places of heroes, in water or mud, and lying on planks.
Though lying on various beds and driven by desire for results, he remains fruitless; (mere) wearing of muñja grass girdle, nakedness, linen, and black antelope skins (do not yield fruit).
He wore linen, was covered with tiger skin; he also wore lion skin and silk garments in the same way.
The foolish person desires many kinds of garments, such as those made of insect threads (silk), bark, and others.
There are various kinds of foods and gems; (but) wearing a single garment and eating only once at a fixed time is prescribed.
Observances include eating at the fourth and eighth times, at the sixth time, as well as eating after six nights and likewise after eight days.
There are those who eat ten meals in seven nights, those who eat twelve meals, those who fast for a month, those who subsist on roots, and those who live on fruits, likewise.
One who subsists on air, water, oil-cake, cow-dung, cow-urine, and also on vegetables and flowers.
He lived by eating water-weed, and likewise by whatever food he could find, subsisting on dry leaves and scattered fruits.
He undertakes various austerities and rites, including the Cāndrāyaṇa vows, all performed according to rule, motivated by the desire for happiness.
He follows the path of the four āśramas, resorts to hermitages, and also sits among heretics, caves, and mountains.
There are solitary places and the shades of rocks, as well as springs; there are various recitations to be performed and various vows to be observed.
Restraints, many kinds of austerities, various sacrifices, and rites of different forms and kinds likewise.
The path of merchants, the twice-born, warriors, Vaiśyas, and Śūdras likewise; gifts of various kinds are also to be given to the poor, the blind, and the miserable.
From the address to Abhimanyu, in the same way, the threefold qualities—sattva, rajas, and tamas—as well as dharma, artha, and kāma; by nature, the self divides itself in this way.
Uttering svadhā, vaṣaṭ, svāhā, acts of salutation, causing to perform sacrifice, teaching, giving, likewise accepting gifts, performing sacrifice, studying, and indeed whatever else there may be—these are declared.
They say that in matters of birth, death, dispute, and punishment, everything—whether auspicious or inauspicious—is the path of action.
Nature, the goddess, indeed brings about the great dissolution. At the end of the day, having gathered these qualities, the One remains.
Just as the sun restrains its net of rays by time, in the same way, he repeatedly regards everything as meant for play.
He, modifying these various qualities of his own form, which are dear to the heart, thus indeed engages in the acts of creation and dissolution.
He who is attached to the path of action and inaction, endowed with the three qualities or transcending them, and endowed with the path of action and inaction, thus thinks that is so.
Thus, these dualities constantly exist as mine. These indeed arise from me and afflict me; those are indeed myself.
O king, this person, out of ignorance, thinks that all these are to be overcome; in the same way, he thinks so even about good deeds.
These are the things I am destined to experience, whether I go to the world of the gods or remain here; here itself I shall enjoy the results of good and bad actions.
Happiness alone should be pursued; having attained happiness once, it is mine. For as long as the end, happiness will be mine in every birth.
And for me, there will be endless suffering here due to my actions; truly, human existence is great suffering, and so is sinking into hell.
From hell, I will again attain a human birth in due course; from humanity, I will reach divinity, and from divinity, manhood again; from humanity, one also attains hell in turn.
Whoever always knows thus, being enveloped by qualities devoid of self, he is born among gods, among men, and in hell.
Enveloped by the sense of mine-ness, he continually revolves there itself, passing through thousands of crores of creations, in forms that end in death.
Whoever acts thus, performing deeds that yield both auspicious and inauspicious results, that very person alone experiences the consequences in all three worlds, being embodied.
Nature performs actions that yield both auspicious and inauspicious results. Nature also experiences those results in the three worlds, moving according to desire.
One should know that the three natural states are: birth as an animal, as a human, and as a god.
They declare that primordial nature is unmarked; we infer it by its marks. In the same way, the mark of puruṣa is indeed seen by inference.
He, having assumed another subtle, natural, unwounded body, and having entered the doors of wounds, regards actions as pertaining to himself.
All the five organs of action such as the ear and others, and the organs of speech and others, function only in the guṇas, together with the guṇas. I, indeed, perform actions through these, and these are my senses.
One should think: 'I am both wounded and unwounded; the self is both without mark and with mark; the self is timeless and time-bound.'
He perceives non-existence as existence in the self, non-reality as reality in the self; immortality as death in the self, the unmoving as the moving in the self.
He is the non-field and the field, the self; the non-creation and the creation, of the self; without heat and heat, the self; without movement and movement, of the self.
He who is non-being is the self of being, and he who is fearless is the self of fear; the imperishable is the self of the perishable, but the unintelligent thinks so.
