l's rising from the
body, and the fruit of that discriminative knowledge is its
accomplishment in its true nature, i.e. the comprehension that its
nature is the pure Self. Thus the embodiedness and the non-embodiedness
of the Self are due merely to discrimination and non-discrimination, in
agreement with the mantra, 'Bodiless within the bodies,' &c. (Ka. Up. I,
2, 22), and the statement of Sm/ri/ti as to the non-difference between
embodiedness and non-embodiedness 'Though dwelling in the body, O
Kaunteya, it does not act and is not tainted' (Bha. Gi. XIII, 31). The
individual soul is therefore called 'That whose true nature is
non-manifest' merely on account of the absence of discriminative
knowledge, and it is called 'That whose nature has become manifest' on
account of the presence of such knowledge. Manifestation and
non-manifestation of its nature of a different kind are not possible,
since its nature is nothing but its nature (i.e. in reality is always
the same). Thus the difference between the individual soul and the
highest Lord is owing to wrong knowledge only, not to any reality,
since, like ether, the highest Self is not in real contact with
anything.

And wherefrom is all this to be known?--From the instruction given by
Prajapati who, after having referred to the jiva ('the person that is
seen in the eye,' &c.), continues 'This is the immortal, the fearless,
this is Brahman.' If the well-known seer within the eye were different
from Brahman which is characterised as the immortal and fearless, it
would not be co-ordinated (as it actually is) with the immortal, the
fearless, and Brahman. The reflected Self, on the other hand, is not
spoken of as he who is characterised by the eye (the seer within the
eye), for that would render Prajapati obnoxious to the reproach of
saying deceitful things.--So also, in the second section, the passage,
'He who moves about happy in dreams,' &c. does not refer to a being
different from the seeing person within the eye spoken of in the first
chapter, (but treats of the same topic) as appears from the introductory
clause, 'I shall explain him further to you.' Moreover[187], a person
who is conscious of having seen an elephant in a dream and of no longer
seeing it when awake discards in the waking state the object which he
had seen (in his sleep), but recognises himself when awake to be the
same person who saw something in the dream.--Thus in the third section
also Prajapati does i