not knowing, That which is stainless and pure, and for its devotion to what is the result of a combination of both Pure and Impure, the Soul, which is in reality pure, becomes, O king Impure.  Indeed, in consequence of its devotion to Ignorance, Jiva, though characterised by Knowledge becomes repeatedly associated with Ignorance.  Though, O monarch, free from error of every kind, yet in consequence of its devotion to the three attributes of Prakriti, it becomes endued with those attributes.’”

SECTION CCCVI

’"Janaka said, O holy one, it has been said that the relation between male and female is like that which subsists between the Indestructible and the destructible (or Purusha and Prakriti).  Without a male, a female can never conceive.  Without a female a male also can never create form.  In consequence of their union with each other, and each depending upon the attributes of the other, forms (of living creatures) are seen to flow.  This is the case with all orders of being.  Through each other’s union for purposes of (sexual) congress, and through each depending upon the attributes of the others, forms (of living creatures) flow in menstrual seasons.  I shall tell to thee the indications thereof.  Hear what the attributes are that belong to the sire and what those are that belong to the mother.  Bones, sinews and marrow, O regenerate one, we know, are derived from the sire.  Skin, flesh, and blood, we hear are derived from the mother.  Even this, O foremost of regenerate persons, is what may be read of in the Vedas and other scriptures.  Whatever is read as declared in the Vedas and in other scriptures is regarded as authority.  The authority, again, of the Vedas and other scriptures (not inconsistent with the Vedas), is eternal.  If Prakriti and Purusha be always united together in this way by each opposing and each depending on the other’s attributes, I see, O holy one, that Emancipation cannot exist.  Thou, O holy one, art possessed of spiritual vision so that thou seest all things as if they are present before thy eyes.  If, therefore, there be any direct evidence of the existence of Emancipation, do thou, speak of it to me.  We are desirous of attaining to Emancipation.  Indeed, we wish to attain to That which is auspicious, bodiless, not subject to decrepitude, eternal beyond the ken of the senses, and having nothing superior to it.

’"Vasishtha said, What thou sayest about the indications of the Vedas and the other scriptures (in respect of the matter) is even so.  Thou takest those indications in the way in which they should be taken.  Thou bearest, however, in thy understanding, only the texts of the Vedas and the other scriptures.  Thou art not, O monarch, truly conversant with the real meaning of those texts.  That person who bears in his understanding merely the texts of the Vedas and the other scriptures without being conversant with the true sense or meaning of those texts, bears