two) which then is destructible, and how can that (viz., the Soul),
which is said to be eternal, suffer destruction?[824] As small rivers
falling into larger ones lose their forms and names, and the larger ones
(thus enlarged) rolling into the ocean, lose their forms and names too,
after the same manner occurs that form of extinction of life called
Emancipation.[825] This being the case, when jiva which is characterised
by attributes, is received into the Universal Soul, and when all its
attributes disappear, how can it be the object of mention by
differentiation? One who is conversant with that understanding which is
directed towards the accomplishment of Emancipation and who heedfully
seeks to know the Soul, is never soiled by the evil fruits of his acts
even as a lotus leaf though dipped in water is never soaked by it. When
one becomes freed from the very strong bonds, many in number, occasioned
by affection for children and spouses and love for sacrifices and other
rites, when one casts off both joy and sorrow and transcends all
attachments, one then attains to the highest end and entering into the
Universal Soul becomes incapable of differentiation. When one has
understood the declarations of the Srutis that lead to correct inferences
(about Brahma) and has practised those auspicious virtues which the same
and other scriptures inculcate, one may lie down at ease, setting at
nought the fears of decrepitude and death. When both merits and sins
disappear, and the fruits, in the form of joy and sorrow, arising
therefrom, are destroyed, men, unattached to everything, take refuge at
first on Brahma invested with personality, and then behold impersonal
Brahma in their understandings.[826] Jiva in course of its downward
descent under the influence of Avidya lives here (within its cell formed
by acts) after the manner of a silk-worm residing within its cell made of
threads woven by itself. Like the freed silk-worm again that abandons its
cell, jiva also abandons its house generated by its acts. The final
result that takes place is that its sorrows are then destroyed like a
clump of earth falling with violence upon a rocky mass.[827] As the Ruru
casting off its old horns or the snake casting off its slough goes on
without attracting any notice, after the same manner a person that is
unattached casts off all his sorrows. As a bird deserts a tree that is
about to fall down upon a piece of water and thus severing itself from it
a