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MIND ETC. ARE ALSO MATERIAL
attribute of the non-material and inactive soul. Hence it is also inactive. Being inactive itself, it cannot be the cause of activity elsewhere. For instance, the wind is endowed with activity and touch, and it is naturally the cause of the wafting of plants and trees. But this invisible force is quite different from it, and hence it cannot be the cause of activity.
The soul wishing for the destruction-cum-subsidence of energy-obstructing karmas and the rise of name karmas of limbs and minor limbs, exhales air from the lungs, and it is called the breath of life (prāņa). The same soul inhales air from the atmosphere, and it is called the breath of inhalation (apāna). Thus these also are helpful to the soul, as these enable the soul to live.
These-the mind, the exhaled air, and the inhaled air--must be understood to be material. How? These meet with resistance etc. by material objects. The mind stops from functioning by thunderbolt etc. which strike terror in the hearts of living beings. It is also overpowered by intoxicating liquor and the rest. Respiration is obstructed by covering the face with the palm or a cloth. It is also subjugated by phlegm. But a non-material substance cannot be obstructed or subjugated by material objects. It is from this that the existence of the soul is proved. Just as the motion of a puppet equipped with mechanical contrivances for moving the limbs signifies the agent who directs the motions, so also the activities such as inhalation and exhalation prove the existence of the active soul.
Are these alone the help rendered by forms of matter? Or perhaps is there anything else? सुखदुःखजीवितमरणोपग्रहाश्च
ll 2011 Sukhaduḥkhajivitamaranopagrahāśca (20) 20. (The function of matter is) also to contribute to pleasure, suffering, life and death of living beings.
Owing to the presence of the internal causes of karmas, which produce the feelings of delight and anguish, and in consequence of the ripening of external causes such as objects,
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