When the Supreme
Being is without senses, without seed, without matter, without body, He
must be divested of all attributes! and in consequence of His being so,
how, indeed, can He have attributes of any kind? Space and other
attributes arise from the attributes of Sattwa and Rajas and Tamas, and
disappear ultimately in them. Thus the attributes arise from Prakriti.
Skin, flesh, blood, fat, bile, marrow, bones, and sinews,--these eight
that are made of Prakriti, know, O king, may sometimes be produced by the
vital seed alone (of the male). The Jiva-soul and the universe are said
to both partake of Prakriti characterised by the three attributes of
Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas. The Supreme Soul is different from both the
Jiva-soul and the universe. As the seasons though unendued with forms,
are nevertheless inferred from the appearance of particular fruits and
flowers, after the same manner, Prakriti, though formless, is inferred
from the attributes of Mahat and the rest that spring from it. In this
way from the existence of Chaitanya in the body, the Supreme Soul,
divested of all attributes whatever and perfectly stainless, is inferred.
Without beginning and destruction, without end, the overseer of all
things, and auspicious, that Soul, only in consequence of its identifying
itself with the body and other attributes, comes to be taken as invested
with attributes. Those persons that are truly conversant with attributes
know that only objects endued with attributes can have attributes but
that That which transcends all attributes can have none.
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