CHAPTER  VIL

ON  the  nature   OF  LIBERATION  FROM   THE  WORLD,
AND   ON   THE  PATH   LEADING  THERETO.
 

First part:
Moksha in
general.
 

Page 34.
 

Moksha ac¬
cording to
Patanjali.
 

If the soul is bound up with the world, and its being
bound up has a certain cause, it cannot be liberated
from this bond save by the opposite of this identical
cause. Now according to the Hindus, as we have
already explained (p. 55), the reason of the bond is
ignorance, and therefore it can only be liberated by
knowledge, by comprehending all things in such a way
as to define them both in general and in particular,
rendering superfluous any kind of deduction and re¬
moving all doubts. For the soul distinguishing between
things (rex ovra) by means of definitions, recognises its
own self, and recognises at the same time that it is its
noble lot to last for ever, and that it is the vulgar lot of
matter to change and to perish in all kinds of shapes.
Then it dispenses with matter, and perceives that that
which it held to be good and delightful is in reality
bad and painful. In this manner it attains real know¬
ledge and turns away from being arrayed in matter.
Thereby action ceases, and both matter and soul become
free by separating from each other.

The author of the book of Patanjali says : " The con¬
centration of thought on the unity of God induces man
to notice something besides that with which he is
occupied. He who wants God, wants the good for the
whole creation without a single exception for any reason
whatever; but he who occupies himself exclusively with