the Jiva (or Chit-Soul).[743] In consequence of acts and the virtue of time, the Soul goes through birth and repeated rounds of rebirth.  As in a dream the Soul sports as if invested with a body which, of course, is due to the action of the mind, after the same manner, it obtains in the mother’s womb a body in consequence of attributes and propensities having (past) acts for their origin.  Whatever senses while it is there, are awakened by past acts as the operating cause, become generated in Consciousness in consequence of the mind co-existing with attachments.[744] In consequence of the past thoughts of sound that are awakened in it, the Soul, subjected to such influences, receives the organ of hearing.  Similarly, from attachment to forms, its eye is produced, and from its longing after scent its organ of smelling.  From thoughts of touch it acquires the skin.  In the same way the five-fold breaths are acquired by it, viz., Prana, Apana, Vyana, Udana, and Samana, which contribute to keep the body agoing.  Encased in body with all limbs fully developed in consequence (as shown above) of past acts, the Soul takes birth, with sorrow, both physical and mental, in the beginning, middle, and end.  It should be known that sorrow springs from the very fact of acceptance of body (in the womb).  It increases with the idea of Self.  From renunciation of these (attachments which are the cause of birth), sorrow meets with an end.  He that is conversant with sorrow’s end attains to Emancipation.[745] Both the origin and the destruction of the senses rest in the attribute of Passion.  The man of wisdom should act with proper scrutiny with the aid of the eye constituted by the scriptures.[746] The senses of knowledge, even if they succeed in earning all their objects, never succeed in overwhelming the man that is without thirst.  The embodied Soul, by making its senses weak, escapes the obligation or rebirth.’"[747]

SECTION CCXIV

“Bhishma said, ’I shall now tell thee what the means are (for conquering the senses) as seen with the eye of the scriptures.  A person, O king, will attain to the highest end by the help of such knowledge and by framing his conduct accordingly.  Amongst all living creatures man is said to be the foremost.

Among men, those that are regenerate have been called the foremost; and amongst the regenerate, they that are conversant with the Vedas.  These last are regarded as the souls of all living creatures.  Indeed, those Brahmanas that are conversant with the Vedas are regarded as all-seeing and omniscient.  They are persons who have become conversant with Brahma.  As a blind man, without a guide, encounters many difficulties on a road, so has a person destitute of knowledge to encounter many obstacles in the world.  For this reason, those that are possessed of knowledge are regarded as superior to the rest.  Those that are desirous of acquiring virtue practise diverse