The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s10.73

v2.c40.s10.73

The nature of the being which passes through transmigration is not specially discussed in the accounts of the paths. The curious mention of the man, variously described as spiritual (*mānasa*) or as superhuman (*amānava*), who leads the migrating soul from the lightning to the world of Brahman, is transformed by the account of the Nirukta⁴ into a change effected in the soul itself, which becomes a spiritual essence, and with this conception Windisch⁵ compares the fact that the Buddha emerges in spiritual (*manomaya*) form from his mother’s womb, thus avoiding all injury to her, and the gods assume such a form. No certainty, however, is possible, and Deussen⁶ is equally certain that the *mānasa* of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka version is merely a corruption of the *amānava* of the Chāndogya text.