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VI PRAPATHAKA, 10.
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five vital airs, having entered (the body), himself satisfied, satisfy all, he who protects all. Thou art Visva (all), thou art Vaisvânara (fire), all that is born is upheld by thee; may all offerings enter into thee; creatures live where thou grantest immortality to all. He who eats according to this rule, does not in turn become food for others.
10. There is something else to be known. There is a further modification of this Self-sacrifice (the eating), namely, the food and the eater thereof. This is the explanation. The thinking Purusha (person), when he abides within the Pradhana (nature), is the feeder who feeds on the food supplied by Prakriti (nature). The elemental Self is truly his food, his maker being Pradhana (nature?). Therefore what is composed of the three qualities (gunas) is the food, but the person within is the feeder. And for this the evidence is supplied by the senses. For animals spring from seed, and as the seed is the food, therefore it is clear that what is food is Pradhana (the seed or cause of everything). Therefore, as has been said, the Purusha (person) is the eater, Prakriti, the food; and abiding within it he feeds. All that begins with the Mahat: (power of intellect) and ends with the Viseshas (elements 4), being developed from the distinction of nature with its three qualities, is the sign (that there must be a Purusha, an intel
1 See before, III, 3.
2 This is very doubtful, in fact, unintelligible. The commentator says, asya bhûtâtmanah kartâ pradhânah pûrvoktah, so 'pi bhogya ity arthah.
8 Technical terms, afterwards adopted by the Sânkhya philosophers.
Professor Cowell observes that the term visesha, as here applied to the five gross elements, occurs in the Sankhya-kârikâ, ver. 38.
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