Not with one; because each element by itself is incapable of producing
an effect. Such incapability is declared by Scripture and tradition
alike. The text 'Having entered these beings with this jîva soul let me
reveal names and forms--let me make each of these three tripartite' (Ch.
Up. VI, 3) teaches that the elements were rendered tripartite in order
to be capable of evolving names and forms; and of similar import is the
following Smriti text, 'Possessing various powers these (elements),
being separate from one another, were unable to produce creatures
without combining. But having entered into mutual conjunction they, from
the Mahat down to individual beings, produce the Brahma egg.' From this
it follows that in the clause 'breath is united with fire' the word _fire_
denotes fire mixed with the other elements. Breath and soul therefore
are united with the aggregate of the elements.--Here terminates the
adhikarana of 'the elements.'
7. And it is common up to the beginning of the way; and the immortality
(is that which is obtained), without having burned.
Is this departure of the soul common to him who knows and him who does
not know?--It belongs to him only who does not know, the Pûrvapakshin
holds. For Scripture declares that for him who knows there is no
departure, and that hence he becomes immortal then and there
(irrespective of any departure of the soul to another place), 'when all
desires which once dwelt in his heart are undone, then the mortal
becomes immortal, then he obtains Brahman' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 7). This
view the Sûtra sets aside. For him also who knows there is the same way
of passing out up to the beginning of the path, i.e. previously to the
soul's entering the veins. For another text expressly declares that the
soul of him also who knows passes out by way of a particular vein:
'there are a hundred and one veins of the heart; one of them penetrates
the crown of the head; moving upwards by that a man reaches immortality,
the others serve for departing in different directions' (Ch. Up. VIII, 6,
5). Scripture thus declaring that the soul of him who knows passes out
by way of a particular vein, it must of course be admitted that it _does_
pass out; and as up to the soul's entering the vein no difference is
mentioned, we must assume that up to that moment the departure of him
who knows does not differ from that of him who does not know. A
difference however is stated with regard to the stage of the soul's
entering the vein, viz. Bri. Up. IV, 4, 2, 'By that light the Self
departs, either through the eye, or through the skull, or through other
parts of the body.' As this text must be interpreted in agreement with
the text relative to the hundred and one veins, the departure by way of
the head must be understood to belong to him who knows, while the other
modes of departing belong to other persons. The last clause of the Sûtra
'and the immortality, without having burned' replies to what the
Pûrvapakshin said as to the soul of him who knows being declared by
Scripture to attain to immortality then and there. The immortality
referred to in the text 'when all desires of his heart are undone'
denotes that non-clinging and destruction of earlier and later sins
which comes to him who knows, together with the rise of knowledge,
without the connexion of the soul with the body, and the sense-organs
being burned, i.e. dissolved at the time.--'He reaches Brahman' in the
same text means that in the act of devout meditation the devotee has an
intuitive knowledge of Brahman.
8. Since, up to the union with that (i.e. Brahman) the texts describe
the Samsâra state.
The immortality referred to must necessarily be understood as not
implying dissolution of the soul's connexion with the body, since up to
the soul's attaining to Brahman the texts describe the Samsâra state.
That attaining to Brahman takes place, as will be shown further on,
after the soul--moving on the path the first stage of which is light--
has reached a certain place. Up to that the texts denote the Samsâra
state of which the connexion with a body is characteristic. 'For him
there is delay so long as he is not delivered (from the body); then he
will be united' (Ch. Up. VI, 14, 2); 'Shaking off all evil as a horse
shakes his hairs, and as the moon frees herself from the mouth of Râhu;
having shaken off the body I obtain self, made and satisfied, the
uncreated world of Brahman' (VIII, 13).
9. And the subtle (body persists), on account of a means of knowledge,
it being thus observed (in Scripture).
The bondage of him who knows is not, at that stage, dissolved, for this
reason also that the subtle body continues to persist.--How is this
known?--Through a means of knowledge, viz. because it is thus seen in
Scripture. For Scripture states that he who knows, when on the path of
the gods, enters into a colloquy with the moon and others, 'he is to
reply,' &c. (Kau. Up. I, 3 ff.). This implies the existence of a body,
and thence it follows that, at that stage, the subtle body persists. The
state of bondage therefore is not yet dissolved.