Section CCCXLIX

"Vaisampayana said, 'Three kinds of disposition, O monarch, have been created in respect of all embodied creatures, viz., that which relates to the attribute of Sattwa, that which relates to the attribute of Rajas, and lastly that which relates to the attribute of Tamas, O Bharata. As regards embodied creatures, O perpetuator of Kuru's race, that person is the foremost who is wedded to the attribute of Sattwa, for, O tiger among men, it is certain that he will attain to Emancipation. It is with the aid of this very attribute of Sattwa that one endued therewith succeeds in understanding the person that is conversant with Brahma. As regards Emancipation, it is entirely dependent upon Narayana. Hence it is that persons striving after Emancipation are regarded as made up of the attribute of Sattwa. By thinking of Purushottama the foremost of Beings, the man that is devoted with his whole soul to Narayana, acquires great wisdom. Those persons that are endued with wisdom, that have betaken themselves to the practices of Yatis and the religion of Emancipation,--those persons of quenched thirst, always find that Hari favours them with the fruition of their desire. That man subject to birth (and death) upon whom Hari casts a kind eye should be known as endued with the attribute of Sattwa and devoted to the acquisition of Emancipation. The religion followed by a person that is devoted with his whole soul to Narayana is regarded as similar or equal in merit to the system of the Sankhyas. By adopting that religion one attains to the highest end and attains to Emancipation which has Narayana for its soul. That person upon whom Narayana looks with compassion succeeds in becoming awakened. No one, O king, can become awakened through his own wishes. That nature which partakes of both Rajas and Tamas is said to be mixed. Hari never casts a kind eye upon the person subject to birth (and death) that is endued with such a mixed nature and that has, on that account, the principle of Pravritti in him. Only Brahma, the Grandsire of the worlds, looks upon the person that is subject to birth and death because of his mind being overwhelmed with the two inferior attributes of Rajas and Tamas. Without doubt, the deities and the Rishis are wedded to the attributes of Sattwa, O best of kings. But then they that are divested of that attribute in its subtile form are always regarded to be of mutable nature.'

"Janamejaya said, 'How can one that is fraught with the principle of change succeed in attaining to that Purushottama (the foremost of Purusha)? Do tell me all this, which is, no doubt, known to thee. Do thou discourse to me also of Pravritti in due order.'

"Vaisampayana said, 'That which is the twenty-fifth (in the enumeration of topics as made in the Sankhya system) viz., when it becomes able to abstain entirely from acts, succeeds in attaining to the Purushottama which is exceedingly subtile, which is invested with the attribute of Sattwa (in its subtile form), and which is fraught with the essences symbolised by three letters of the alphabet (viz., A, U, and M). The Sankhya system, the Aranyaka-Veda, and the Pancharatra scriptures, are all one and the same and form parts of one whole. Even this is the religion of those that are devoted with their whole souls to Narayana, the religion that has Narayana for its essence. As waves of the ocean, rising from the ocean, rush away from it only to return to it in the end, even so diverse kinds of knowledge, springing from Narayana, return to Narayana in the end. I have thus explained to thee, O son of Kuru's race, what the religion of Sattwa is. If thou beest competent for it, O Bharata, do thou practise that religion duly. Even thus did the highly-blessed Narada explain to my preceptor,--the Island-born Krishna--the eternal and immutable course, called Ekanta, (ending in One) followed by the Whites as also by the yellow-robed Yatis. Vyasa gratified with Dharma's son Yudhishthira, imparted this religion to king Yudhishthira the just who was possessed of great intelligence. Derived from my preceptor I have also communicated it to thee! O best of kings, this religion is for these reasons, exceedingly difficult of practice. Others, hearing it, become as much confounded as thou hast suffered thyself to be. It is Krishna who is the protector of the universe and its beguiler. It is He who is the destroyer and the cause, O monarch.'"