Text 18] Understanding Material Nature 1155

anyonyapasrayatvac ca
nityatvad anayoh prabho

devahitih uvaca—Devahiti said; purusam—the spirit soul; prakrtih—
material nature; brahman—O brahmana; na—not; vimuiicati—does release;
karhicit—at any time; anyonya—to one another; apasrayatvat—from attrac-
tion; ca—and; nityatvat—from eternality; anayoh—of them both; prabho—

O my Lord.
TRANSLATION

Sti Devahiti inquired: My dear brahmana, does material nature ever
give release to the spirit soul? Since one is attracted to the other eternally,
how is their separation possible?

PURPORT

Devahiiti, the mother of Kapiladeva, here makes her first inquiry.
Although one may understand that spirit soul and matter are different,
their actual separation is not possible, either by philosophical speculation
or by proper understanding. The spirit soul is the marginal potency of the
Supreme Lord, and matter is the external potency of the Lord. The two
eternal potencies have somehow or other been combined, and since it is so
difficult to separate one from the other, how is it possible for the
individual soul to become liberated? By practical experience one can see
that when the soul is separated from the body, the body has no real
existence, and when the body is separated from the soul one cannot
perceive the existence of the soul. As long as the soul and the body are
combined, we can understand that there is life. But when they are
separated, there is no manifested existence of the body or the soul. This
question asked by Devahuti of Kapiladeva is more or less impelled by the
philosophy of voidism. The voidists say that consciousness is a product of
a combination of matter and that as soon as the consciousness is gone, the
material combination dissolves, and therefore there is ultimately nothing
but voidness. This absence of consciousness is called nirvana in Mayavada
philosophy.

TEXT 18

AA TAA TRY A Al ATA |
At WA FT WM TA Fai WA TiN 2cil
