[670] As in the midst of
a dream one beholds one's own body lying on the ground as something
distinct from one's own self, even so a person, endued with the five
senses, the mind, and the understanding, beholds (after death) his own
body and then goes from one into another form[671]. The Soul is not
subject to birth, growth, decay, and destruction. In consequence of the
acts of life being endued with effects, the Soul, clothed in body, passes
from this body (when deprived of animation) into another, unseen by
others.[672] No one can behold with the eye the form of the Soul. The
Soul cannot, again, form the subject of any one's touch. With those
(i.e., the senses), the Soul accomplishes no act. The senses do not
approach the Soul. The Soul, however, apprehends them all. As anything,
placed in a blazing fire before a spectator, assumes a certain colour in
consequence of the light and heat that operates upon it, without taking
any other hue or attribute, even so the Soul's form is seen to take its
colour from the body. After the same manner, man, casting off one body,
enters another, unseen by all. Indeed, casting off his body to the (five)
great primal elements, he assumes a form that is similarly made of the
same (five) elements. The embodied creature (upon the destruction of his
body) enters space, wind, fire, water, and earth in such a way that each
particular element in his body mingles with the particular element (out
of his body) with whose nature it is consonant.
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