Manava Dharmashastra 1.78

1.78

raso madhurādi salilaguṇaḥ | gandhaḥ surabhirasurabhiśca | sa bhūmerguṇaḥ | tathā ca vaiśeṣikāḥ 'kṣitāveva gandha' iti | ete sāṃsiddhikā ekaikasya guṇāḥ saṃsargāttu saṅkīryante | taduktaṃ 'yo yo yāvatitha' iti | etacca guṇānukathanamadh‍yātmacintāyāmupayujyate | uktaṃ hi purāṇa-kāreṇa--"daśamanvantarāṇīha tiṣṭhantīndriyacintakāḥ || bhautikāstu śataṃ pūrṇaṃ sahasraṃ tvabhimāninaḥ" || ahaṃkāracintakāḥ | "mahātmakāḥ sahasrāṇi daśa tiṣṭhanti vijvarāḥ || pūrṇaṃ śatasahasraṃ tu tiṣṭhantyavyaktacintakā || puruṣaṃ nirguṇaṃ prāpya parisaṅkhyā na vidyate" |

After light, from out of the same Evolvent, emanates water, which has been declared to be endowed with the quality of taste. and after water, comes earth, endowed with the quality of odour.—Such is creation at the outset.—(78)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Taste’—such as ‘sweet’ and the rest.,—is the quality of Water.—‘Odour’ good smell and evil, is the quality of earth; as say the Vaiśeṣikas—‘odour subsists in earth alone.’

Each of the single qualities that have been mentioned as belonging to each of the elemental substances, is what is inherent in it by its very nature; when, however, the substances come to be mixed up, their qualities also become intermingled. It is in view of this that we have the statement in verse 20 that—‘each elemental substance is endowed with as many qualities as the place it occupies’.

This description of the qualities comes useful in meditation on the soul. This has been thus declared by the author of the Purāṇa.—‘Those who meditate upon the sense-organs (as the soul) stay here for ten manvantaras; those who meditate upon the Elemental Substances stay for a hundred, and those who meditate upon the Principle of Egoism stay for a thousand manvantaras; [‘abhimāninaḥ’ means those who think of the Principle of Egoism]; those who meditate upon the great Principle of Intelligence stay for ten thousand manvantaras, freed from all sufferings; for full hundred thousand years stay those who meditate upon the Unmanifest (Primordial Matter); when one has reached the soul, devoid of all qualities, all limitation ceases.’—(78)