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Mahabharata 12.196.7

Mahābhārata 12.196.7

Language
Sanskrit

12.196.7

tadvadbhūteṣu bhūtātmā sūkṣmo jñānātmavānasau |
adṛṣṭapūrvaścakṣurbhyāṃ na cāsau nāsti tāvatā || 7 ||

As regards the senses, that particular sense which apprehends it loses upon such apprehension its existence as a sense. The senses cannot themselves apprehend their respective forms by themselves. The Soul is omniscient (inasmuch as it apprehends both the knower and the known). It beholds all things. Being omniscient, it is the Soul that beholds the senses (without, as already said, the senses being able to apprehend it). Nobody has seen the other side of the Himavat mountains, nor the reverse of the moon's disc. Yet it cannot be said that these do not exist. Similarly, though never apprehended by the senses, yet nobody can say that the Soul, which dwells in all creatures, which is subtile, and which has knowledge for its essence, does not exist. People see the world reflected on the moon's disc in the form of spots. Though seeing, they do not know that it is the world that is so reflected there. Even such is the knowledge of the Soul. That knowledge must come of itself. The Soul depends upon the Soul itself. Men of wisdom, reflecting on the formlessness of visible objects before birth and after destruction, behold by the aid of intelligence, the formlessness of objects that have apparent forms, So also although the Sun's motion cannot be seen, yet persons, by watching its rising and setting, conclude that the sun has motion.

Kisari Mohan Ganguli 1883, The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

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