Verses on Sāṃkhya 37

Verse 19
Having thus established the multiplicity of conscious spirit, in order to state its properties, he says:

And from that contrast, the witnessing status of this conscious spirit is established,
its isolation, neutrality, the condition of being a seer, and the absence of agency. // 19

"And from that contrariety," and so forth. That contrariety which was stated earlier, by [verses such as], "characterized by the three constituents, non-discriminative, objective," and so on—from that, the properties of conscious spirit such as witnesshood are established. Among these, because conscious spirit is devoid of constituents, it lacks the nature of generating effects, and hence is a non-agent. And that which is a non-agent is neutral. Moreover, its neutrality is of seven kinds. And thus it is said:
"He sees and hears all; he does not act, nor abide, nor have attachment;
Neither from himself, nor from another... nor from both is he neutral."

And that which is neutral is also a witness of the aggregate of activities belonging to primordial matter, because of being devoid of constituents.

Isolation is due to being single, and seerhood is due to being conscious.

[Objection:] But if it is a non-agent, then how is it that "conscious spirit exists because of the status of experiencer"? And thus they say:
"Just as children, fire, and trees are experiencers of what is not done by themselves,
Even so, conscious spirit is the experiencer of the fruits of sense objects, though not done by itself."

Thus it has been stated that it has the status of an experiencer, even though it is a non-agent. // 19