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Matharavritti 63

English (machine translation) 63

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English

63.1

Here it is asked: in worldly convention the learned say, "The spirit is bound, the spirit is liberated, the spirit transmigrates." To this it is said:

63.2

"Therefore no one is bound, nor is anyone liberated, nor does anyone transmigrate;
It is nature, having various resting places, that transmigrates, is bound, and is liberated." //

63.3

The spirit is not bound because it is all-pervading, unchanging, inactive, and not an agent. Since it is not bound, therefore it is not liberated; it is eternally liberated. How can the unbound be liberated? Who gets cholera from what has not been eaten? It does not transmigrate because it is all-pervading. Whence could bondage and liberation come to that which is all-pervading? Transmigration is taught to be for the sake of attaining what has not been attained; and by it everything has been fully attained. Those who say, "The spirit is bound, the spirit is liberated, the spirit transmigrates," do not know the spirit. Here [an opponent] asks: If bondage, liberation, and transmigration do not belong to the spirit, to whom then do they belong? In reply it is said: Transmigrating, bound, and liberated is nature, which has various supports. Nature binds itself, frees itself, and transmigrates. That subtle body consisting of the subtle elements, which was spoken of previously at the beginning of creation, combined with the thirteenfold instrument and bound with the threefold bond, transmigrates. And that threefold bond has been explained before. That very subtle body, when knowledge has arisen, is released from the threefold bond. Therefore, nature, having various supports, is liberated, bound, and transmigrates. "Having various supports" means having become the bodies of gods, humans, and animals. Thus, that which is primordial matter is the subtle body, and that primordial matter is nature—there is no difference in meaning. In this matter, whoever speaks of bondage, liberation, and transmigration as belonging to the spirit is a fool.