the characteristic of renunciation.  Therefore keeping knowledge, before his view, the man of understanding should practise renunciation.  The man who has betaken himself to renunciation and who is possessed of knowledge, who transcends all pairs of opposites, as also darkness, death, and decrepitude, attains to the highest goal.  I have thus declared to you duty what the indications are of duty.  I shall, after this, tell you of the seizure (comprehension) of qualities.  Smell, which appertains to earth, is seized by the nose.  The wind, that dwells in the nose is likewise appointed (as an agent) in the perception of smell.  Taste is the essence of water.  That is seized by the tongue.  Soma, who resides in the tongue, is appointed likewise in the perception of taste.  The quality of a lighted body is colour.  That is seized by the eye.  Aditya who always resides in the eye has been appointed in the perception of colour.  Touch always appertains to the wind (as its quality).  That is perceived by the skin.  The wind that always resides in the skin has been appointed in apprehending touch.  The quality of ether is sound.  That is seized by the ear.  All the quarters, which reside in the ear, have been appointed in apprehending sound.  The quality of the mind is thought.  That is seized by the understanding.  The upholder of consciousness, residing in the heart, has been appointed in apprehending the mind.  The understanding is apprehended in the form of determination or certitude, and Mahat in the form of knowledge.  The unperceived (Prakriti) has been, it is evident, appointed for the seizure of all things after certitude.  There is no doubt in this.[129] The Kshetrajna which is eternal and is destitute of qualities as regards its essence, is incapable of being seized by symbols.  Hence, the characteristic of the Kshetrajna, which is without symbols, is purely knowledge.  The unmanifest resides in the symbol called Kshetra, and is that in which the qualities are produced and absorbed.  I always see, know, and hear it (though) it is hidden.  Purusha knows it:  therefore is he called Kshetrajna.  The Kshetrajna perceives also the operations of the qualities and absence of their operations.  The qualities, which are created repeatedly, do not know themselves, being unintelligent, as entities to be created and endued with a beginning, middle, and end.  No one else attains, only the Kshetrajna attains, to that which is the highest and great and which transcend the qualities and those entities which are born of the qualities.  Hence one who understands duties, casting off qualities and the understanding, and having his sins destroyed, and transcending the qualities, enters the Kshetrajna.  One that is free from all pairs of opposites, that never bends his head to any one, that is divested of Swaha, that is immovable, and homeless, is the Kshetrajna.  He is the Supreme Lord."’

SECTION XLIV