722.  The sense is this:  In the beginning there was nothing save the Chit-Soul.  Existent objects exist only because of Ignorance having defiled the Soul.  Their connection again with the Soul is not absolute and necessary, That connection may be destroyed without the Soul losing anything.  What is intended to be conveyed by this verse is that at first, i.e., before the creation, there was nothing, except jiva or the Soul with Knowledge alone for its indicating attribute.  The things mentioned, viz., earth, etc., were not.  Nor do they inhere to jiva with even Ignorance or Delusion for its indicating attribute, i.e., to the born, Soul.  The born Soul may seem to manifest all those attributes, but it is really independent of or separate from them.  Their connection with the Soul, as already said, is neither absolute nor eternal.  In the next verse, the speaker explains the nature of those manifestations.

723.  The connection between earth, etc., with the Soul has before been said to be neither absolute nor eternal.  Whence then that connection?  In 6, it is said that all the apprehensions of the Soul with regard to earth, etc., are due to Ignorance or Delusion flowing directly from Brahma and assailing it thereafter.  The apprehension of the Soul that it is a man or an animal, that it has a body, that it is acting, etc., are to borrow the commentator’s illustration, just like that of one’s being a king in a dream who is not, however, really a king, or of one’s being a child who is not, however, really a child.  Being eternal or without beginning its first existence under the influence of Delusion is untraceable.  As long, again, as it has Knowledge alone for its attribute, it remains indestructible, i.e., free from the mutations of existence.  It occurs in every creature, i.e., in man and beast.

724.  The sense seems to be this:  In consequence of desires the Soul manifests itself in some form of existence.  In that state it acts.  Those acts again lead to desires anew, which, in their turn, bring on new forms or states of existence.  The circle of existence or life thus goes on, without beginning and without end.

725.  The Cause is ignorance.  The Effect is the body and the senses of a particular form of existence.  When the creature, in consequence of this union, engages in acts, these latter become causes for new states of existence.

726.  The object of this verse is to reiterate the doctrine that the possession of the body and the senses, etc., does not after the state of the Soul.  The Soul is really unattached to these though it may apparently exist in a state of union with them, like the wind, which existing in a state of apparent union with the dust it bears away is even at such times pure by itself and as a substance, exists separately.

727.  The Vedas contain declarations of both kinds, ix., they urge to action as also to abstention from action.  The former is necessary as a stepping stone to the latter.  Such men are rare as understand the declarations of the Vedas in this way and as conform by their conduct to those declarations thus.  What is seen, on the other hand, is that some betake themselves to acts and some to abstention from acts.  The second line of the verse has been expanded a little in the translation, following Nilakantha’s gloss.