Sarvadarshanasangraha 8.67

8.67

nanv ātmanaḥ parameśvaratvaṃ svābhāvikaṃ cen nārthaḥ pratyabhijñāprārthanayā/ na hi bījam apratyabhijñātaṃ sati sahakārisākalye ’ṅkuraṃ notpādayati/ tasmāt kasmād vātmapratyabhijñāne nirbandha iti cet — ucyate/ śṛṇu tāvad idaṃ rahasyam/ dvividhā hy arthakriyā bāhyāṅkurādikā pramātṛviśrānticamatkārasārā prītyādirūpā ca/ tatrādyā prayabhijñānaṃ nāpekṣate/ dvitīyā tu tad apekṣata eva/ ihāpy aham īśvara ity evaṃbhūtacamatkārasārā parāparasiddhilakṣaṇajīvātmaikatvaśaktivibhūtirūpārthakriyeti svarūpapratyabhijñānam apekṣaṇīyam/

An objection may be raised: If the divine nature is essential to the soul, there can be no occasion to seek for this recognition; for if all requisites be supplied, the seed does not fail to germinate because it is unrecognised. Why, then, this toilsome effort for the recognition of the soul? To such an objection we reply: Only listen to the secret we shall tell you. All activity about objects is of two degrees, being either external, as the activity of the seed in developing the plant, or internal, as the activity which determines felicity, which consists in an intuition which terminates in the conscious self. The first degree of activity presupposes no such recognition as the system proposes, the second does presuppose it. In the Recognitive System the peculiar activity is the exertion of the power of unifying personal and impersonal spirit, a power which is the attainment of the highest and of mediate ends, the activity consisting in the intuition I am God. To this activity a recognition of the essential nature of the soul is a pre-requisite.