It has been shown that, different therein from Ether and the rest, the
soul is not produced. This leads to the consideration of the soul's
essential nature. Is that essential nature constituted by mere
intelligence as Sugata and Kapila hold; or is the soul as Kanâda thinks,
essentially non-intelligent, comparable to a stone, while intelligence
is merely an adventitious quality of it; or is it essentially a knowing
subject?--The soul is mere intelligence, the Pûrvapakshin maintains; for
the reason that Scripture declares it to be so. For in the antaryâmin-
brâhmana the clause which in the Mâdhyandina-text runs as follows, 'he
who abides in the Self,' is in the text of the Kânvas represented by the
clause 'he who abides in knowledge.' Similarly the text 'knowledge
performs the sacrifice and all sacred acts' (Taitt. Up. II, 5, I) shows
that it is knowledge only which is the true nature of the active Self.
And Smriti texts convey the same view, as e.g. 'it in reality is of the
nature of absolutely spotless intelligence.' A second Pûrvapakshin
denies the truth of this view. If, he says, we assume that the Self's
essential nature consists either in mere knowledge or in its being a
knowing subject, it follows that as the Self is omnipresent there must
be consciousness at all places and at all times. On that doctrine we,
further, could not account for the use of the instruments of cognition
(i.e. the sense-organs, &c.); nor for the fact that in the states of
deep sleep, swoon and so on, the Self although present is not observed
to be conscious, while on the other hand consciousness is seen to arise
as soon as the conditions of the waking state are realised. We therefore
conclude that neither intelligence or consciousness, nor being a knowing
agent, constitutes the essence of the soul, but that consciousness is a
mere adventitious or occasional attribute. And the omnipresence of the
Self must needs be admitted since its effects are perceived everywhere.
Nor is there any valid reason for holding that the Self moves to any
place; for as it is assumed to be present everywhere the actual
accomplishment of effects (at certain places only) may be attributed to
the moving of the body only.--Scripture also directly declares that in
the state of deep sleep there is no consciousness, 'I do not indeed at
the present moment know myself, so as to be able to say "that am I," nor
do I know those beings.' Similarly Scripture declares the absence of
consciousness in the state of final release, 'when he has departed there
is no consciousness' (Bri. Up. II, 4, 12); where the Self is spoken of
as having knowledge for its essential nature, the meaning only is that
knowledge constitutes its specific quality, and the expression is
therefore not to be urged in its literal sense.
Against all this the Sûtra declares 'for this very reason a knower.'
This Self is essentially a knower, a knowing subject; not either mere
knowledge or of non-sentient nature.--Why?--'For this very reason,' i.e.
on account of Scripture itself. 'For this reason' refers back to the 'on
account of Scripture' in the preceding Sûtra. For in the Chândogya,
where the condition of the released and the non-released soul is
described, the text says 'He who knows, let me smell this, he is the
Self--with the mind seeing those pleasures he rejoices-the devas who are
in the world of Brahman--whose desires are true, whose purposes are true--
not remembering the body into which he was born' (Ch. Up. VIII, 12, 4-5;
1, 5; 12, 3). And elsewhere 'The seer does not see death' (Ch. Up. VII,
26, 2). Similarly we read in the Vâjasaneyaka, in reply to the question
'Who is that Self?'--'He who is within the heart, surrounded by the
Prânas, the person of light, consisting of knowledge' (Bri. Up. IV, 3,
7); 'By what should one know the knower?' (Bri. Up. IV, 5, 15); 'That
person knows.' And 'for he is the knower, the hearer, the smeller, the
taster, the perceiver, the thinker, the agent--he the person whose Self
is knowledge'; and 'thus these sixteen parts of that seer' (Pra. Up. IV,
9; VI, 5). To the objection that if being a cognising subject
constituted the essential nature of the Self it would follow that as the
Self is omnipresent, there would be consciousness always and everywhere,
the next Sûtra replies.