Vishnupurana 2.14.p1.3

2.14.p1.3

So any act, that is performed by such perishable things as fuel, clarified butter and Kusha grass, must be in nature perishable. The great end of life must be considered by wise men as eternal and it would be transient if it were accomplished through transitory things. If you consider that which gives no reward to be the true end of life then that which brings on final liberation is not the true end of life. If the union of the individual soul with the Great soul is considered as the supreme end of life then this becomes false: for one substance cannot become substantially another. Thus there are undoubtedly very many best things in this world: hear from me, in short O king, the true end of life. It is soul, one, all-pervading, uniform, perfect supreme over nature, freed from birth, growth and destruction, omnipresent undecaying, made up of true knowledge, independent and not connected with unreal things, with name, species and the rest and in time, present, past and future. The spirit, which is essentially one in one's own and in all other bodies, is the true wisdom of one who knows the unity and the true principles of things. As air spreading all over the world going through the perforation of a flute is distinguished as the notes of the scale so the (true) nature of the great spirit is one though it assumes various forms consequent upon the fruits of actions.