Their connection again with the Soul is not absolute
and necessary, That connection may be destroyed without the Soul losing
anything. What is intended to be conveyed by this verse is that at first,
i.e., before the creation, there was nothing, except jiva or the Soul
with Knowledge alone for its indicating attribute. The things mentioned,
viz., earth, etc., were not. Nor do they inhere to jiva with even
Ignorance or Delusion for its indicating attribute, i.e., to the born,
Soul. The born Soul may seem to manifest all those attributes, but it is
really independent of or separate from them. Their connection with the
Soul, as already said, is neither absolute nor eternal. In the next
verse, the speaker explains the nature of those manifestations.
723. The connection between earth, etc., with the Soul has before been
said to be neither absolute nor eternal. Whence then that connection? In
6, it is said that all the apprehensions of the Soul with regard to
earth, etc., are due to Ignorance or Delusion flowing directly from
Brahma and assailing it thereafter. The apprehension of the Soul that it
is a man or an animal, that it has a body, that it is acting, etc., are
to borrow the commentator's illustration, just like that of one's being a
king in a dream who is not, however, really a king, or of one's being a
child who is not, however, really a child. Being eternal or without
beginning its first existence under the influence of Delusion is
untraceable.
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