intermingling with (fragrant) flowers, become in respect of quality very agreeable, even so the quality of Sattwa arises in men in proportion to the measure of their association with persons of cleansed souls.[1562] When one becomes desirous of dwelling in heaven, one casts off one’s spouses and wealth and rank and vehicles and diverse kinds of good acts.  Indeed, when one attains to such a frame of mind, one’s understanding is said to be dissociated from the objects of the senses.  That man (on the other hand) who, with understanding attached to the objects of the senses, becomes blind to what is for his real good, is dragged (to his ruin) by his heart which runs after all worldly objects, like a fish (dragged to its ruin) by the bait of meat.  Like unto the body that is made up of different limbs and organs, all mortal creatures exist depending upon one another.  They are as destitute of vigour as the pith of the banana plant. (Left to themselves) they sink in the world’s ocean like a boat (made of weak materials).  There is no fixed time for the acquisition of righteousness.  Death waits for no man.  When man is constantly running towards the jaws of Death, the accomplishment of righteous acts is proper at all times.  Like a blind man who, with attention, is capable of moving about his own house, the man of wisdom, with mind set on Yoga, succeeds in proceeding along the track (he should follow).[1563] It has been said that death arises in consequence of birth.  Birth is subject to the sway of death.  One unacquainted with the course of the duties of Emancipation revolves like a wheel between birth and death, unable to free oneself from that fate.  One who walketh along the track recommended by the understanding earns happiness both here and hereafter.  The Diverse are fraught with misery, while the Few are productive of happiness.  Fruits represented by the not-Soul are said to constitute the Diverse.  Renunciation is (said to constitute the Few and that is) productive of the soul’s happiness.[1564] As the lotus stalk quickly leaves the mire attached to it, even so the Soul can speedily cast off the mind.[1565] It is the mind that at first inclines the Soul to Yoga.  The latter then merges the former into itself.  When the Soul achieves success in Yoga, it then beholds itself uninvested with attributes.[1566] Engaged amid the objects of the senses, one who regards such engagement to be one’s employment falleth away from one’s true employment in consequence of such devotion to those objects.  The soul of the wise man attains, through its righteous acts, to a state of high felicity in heaven, while that of the man who is not possessed of wisdom sinks very low or obtains birth among intermediate creatures.  As a liquid substance, if kept in a baked earthen vessel, does not escape therefrom but remains undiminished, after the same manner one’s body with which one has undergone austerities enjoys (without rejecting) all objects of enjoyment (up to what are contained in the region of Brahma himself).