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CHAPTER XV, 18.
113
Entering the earth', I by my power support all things; and becoming the juicy moon, I nourish all herbs. I becoming the fire, and dwelling in the bodies of (all) creatures, and united with the upward: and downward life-breaths, cause digestion of the fourfold food. And I am placed in the heart of all *; from me (come) memory, knowledge, and their removal; I alone am to be learnt from all the Vedas; I am the author of the Vedantas*; and I alone know the Vedas. There are these two beings in the world, the destructible and the inde. structible. The destructible (includes all things. The unconcerned one is (what is) called the indestructible. But the being supreme is yet another, called the highest self, who as the inexhaustible lord, pervading the three worlds, supports (them). And since I transcend the destructible, and since I am higher also than the indestructible ", therefore
portion explains how souls do come back in some cases. As a general rule, all going ends in returning. But the soul is an exception in some cases, as the 'going' to the Brahman is going to the fountain-bead. Then the question arises, How does the xverance come off at all? And that is what the lines up to this explain.
i Entering in the form of the goddess earth,' say Ânandagiri and Madhusodana. Support, i.e. by keeping the earth from falling or crumbling away. The moon is said to nourish herbs by communicating to them some of her juice.' The moon, it may be noted, is called 'watery star' by Shakespeare. As to her relation to the vegetable kingdom, see Matsya-puråna XXIII, stanza 10 seq.
' I.e. what is drunk, what is licked, what is powdered with the teeth, and what is eaten without such powdering.
. Cl. p. 104 supra. • See lotroduction, p. 18. •CL Sveldsvatara, p. 294.
• The two are the whole collection of things as they appear and their material cause. The supreme being is a third principle.
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