Thou hast asked me who I am, whose I am,
whence I am coming, etc. Listen to me, O king, with undivided mind, as I
answer these questions of thine. As lac and wood, as grains of dust and
drops of water, exist commingled when brought together, even so are the
existences of all creatures.[1696] Sound, touch, taste, form, and scent,
these and the senses, though diverse in respect of their essences, exist
yet in a state of commingling like lac and wood. It is again well known
that nobody asks any of these, saying, who art thou? Each of them also
has no knowledge either of itself or of the others. The eye cannot see
itself. The ear cannot hear itself. The eye, again, cannot discharge the
functions of any of the other senses, nor can any of the senses discharge
the functions of any sense save its own. If all of them even combine
together, even they fail to know their own selves as dust and water
mingled together cannot know each other though existing in a state of
union. In order to discharge their respective functions, they await the
contact of objects that are external to them. The eye, form, and light,
constitute the three requisites of the operation called seeing. The same,
as in this case, happens in respect of the operations of the other senses
and the ideas which is their result. Then, again, between the functions
of the senses (called vision, hearing, etc.,) and the ideas which are
their result (viz., form, sound, etc.), the mind is an entity other than
the senses And is regarded to have an action of its own.
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