Chapter 13 - Verse 20

The effect (karya) is the physical body, and the instruments (karanas) are the thirteen * located in the body. The five elements (bhutas) which buildup the body, and the five sense-objects which are the emanations of Prakṛti as mentioned above, are included under the term ’effect;’ and all qualities, such as pleasure, pain and delusion, which are born of Prakṛti, are included under the term ‘instruments,’ since those qualities are seated in the instruments, the senses. In the production of the physical body, of the senses and their sensations, Prakṛti is said to be the cause, for, it generates them all. Thus, as producing the physical body and the senses, Prakṛti is the cause of samsara.

Five organs of sensation, five of activity, Manas, Buddhi, and Ahankara.

In the place of ‘karana’ which means instrument, some read ‘kārana’ which means cause.—Whatever is a modification of another is the effect or emanation (vikara) of that other; and that from which it emanates is the cause (kārana) Prakṛti is the source of the cause and the effect, which comprise the same things (that were denoted by the terms ‘the effect and the instruments’). Or, it may be that the sixteen vikaras† or emanations are here spoken of as the effect; and the seven ‡ which are at once Prakṛti and vikriti, cause and effect, and which are therefore called Prakṛti-Vikritis, are spoken of as the cause. In the production of these, the cause is Prakṛti, as generating them all.

The ten sense-organs, Manas and the five sense-objects.—(A).

viz, Mahat, Ahamkara, and the five Tanmatras or rudimental elements. Each of these is an emanation from its predecessor and is in turn the cause, of its successor. As producing all these, the Mulāprakriti is their cause, their basis.—(A).

And now will be shown how Puruṣa is the cause of samsara. ‘Puruṣa,’ ‘Jīva,’ ‘Kṣetrajña,’ ‘Bhoaktri (Enjoye r’* are all synonymous terms. Puruṣa is said to be the cause, as perceiving pleasure, pain, and other objects of experience.

The three last terms are respectively intended to show that Purusha here referred to is not the Paramatman or the Highest Self, is an intelligent (chetana) principle, is a conditioned being.—(A)

(Objection):—Why should Prakṛti and Puruṣa be regarded as the cause of samsara by way of generating causes and effects and experiencing pleasure and pain?

(Answer):—How could there be samsara at all without Prakṛti transforming itself as causes and effects, as the body and the senses, as pleasure and pain, and without the conscious Puruṣa experiencing them?† When, on the other hand there is a conjunction—in the form of avidya or nescience—of Puruṣa, the experiencer, with Prakṛti, the opposite, the object of experience, in all its transformations as the body and the senses, as pleasure and pain, as causes and effects, then only is samsara possible. Wherefore it is but right to say that Prakṛti and Puruṣa are the case of samsara; the one generating the body and the senses, the other experiencing pleasures and pains.

For, the Atman who is ever free (nitya-mukta) from samsara, cannot of Himself be subject to samsara.—(A).

(Objection):—What, then, is this samsara?‡

The objector means: If Atman be immutable (avikriya), not subject to changes of state, then it is not proper to say that He is ever subject to samsara.—(A).

(Answer):—Saṃsāra is the experience of pleasure and pain; and Puruṣa is the samsarin, as the experiencer of pleasure and pain.§

That is to say: while experiencing pleasure or pain, the Self, the experiencer remains quite unchanged. It is this experience (bhoga) which constitutes His samsara, and which makes Him a samsarin.—(A).

Avidya and Kama are the cause of rebirths.

It has been said that Puruṣa is the samsarin as experiencing pleasure and pain. What is the (experiencing of pleasure and pain) due to?—The Lord says :