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VEDÂNTA-SÜTRAS.
The declaration that the descending souls become rice plants, and so on, cannot be taken literally for that reason also, that the text afterwards declares them to become those who perform the act of generation : "Whoever the being may be that eats the food and begets offspring, that being he (i.e. the soul that has descended) becomes. Now the meaning of this latter text can only be that the soul enters into conjunction with the creature which eats the grain ; and hence we have to interpret the previous text, as to the soul's becoming a plant, in the same way.
27. From the yoni the body:
Only after having reached a yoni the soul, affected with a remnant of its works, obtains a new body, and only in a body there can be the enjoyment of pleasure and pain. When, therefore, previous to that the soul is said to reach ether, wind, and so on, this can only mean that it enters into conjunction with them.--Here terminates the adhikarana of 'that animated by another soul.'
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