Earlier, in Chapter XIII, we had an exhaustive discussion of the field-of-Matter and the Knower-of-the field. The discussion we had so far in this chapter must prove that the Sun, the warmth in the atmosphere, the earth, its potentialities, the plant-kingdom, and man and his capacities — all of them together constituting the field-of-Matter, are nothing other than the Supreme Itself.

When the Infinite Consciousness becomes the light and heat of the Sun, the fertility of the earth, the essence in the plant, the Consciousness in the heart, the faculties of knowing and remembering, etc., they are all different forms of Consciousness alone. Thus, the fact that the field-of-Matter is nothing other than the Spirit Itself was already demonstrated. The only difference is that the Spirit, when It has assumed the form of Matter, looks as though It is subject to change and destruction. Thus the “realm of Matter” is indicated in this stanza as the Perishable (Kshara) Purusha.

In the relative field of experience, when we talk with reference to the inert and perishable world of Matter, the Spirit is indicated as the Conscious Principle, which is Imperishable. With reference to one’s wife alone is one called a husband; when I have a son I will become a father. Similarly, with reference to the perishable and the changing Matter-envelopments, the Consciousness is indicated as the Imperishable and the Changeless. The body changes; from childhood to youth, from youth to old age; the mind changes in its quality of feelings and emotions; the intellect expressing differently with each added knowledge and experience is ever in a state of change. But one is constantly AWARE OF all these changes. This Consciousness which has been constantly recognising and illumining all changes, at all levels, all through the individual’s life, is necessarily changeless. This Conscious Principle is called Akshara only with reference to and as a contrast with the Perishable, the (Kshara).

This Immutable and Imperishable principle of Life is the Self, common in all living creatures at all times. That this Self, in the midst of change remains changeless and that all changes can take place only in contact with it are both indicated by the metaphor suggested by the term used here, Kootashah.

DISTINCT FROM THESE TWO — THE PERISHABLE AND THE IMPERISHABLE — UNTAINTED BY THE IMPERFECTIONS OF THESE TWO RELATIVE CONDITIONS, IS THE HIGHEST SPIRIT:

There are imau, these; dvau, two-grouped separately; purusau, persons, so called [Persons-so called only figuratively, since they are the limiting adjuncts of the supreme Person.]; loke in the world; the ksarah, mutable-one group consists of the perishable; the other person is the aksarah, immutable, opposite of the former, the power of God called Maya, which is the seed of the origin of the person called the mutable. That which is the receptacle of the impressions of desires, actions, etc. of countless transmigrating creatures is called the immutable person. Who are those persons? The Lord Himself gives the answer: Ksarah, the mutable; consists of sarvani, all; bhutani, things, i.e. the totality of all mutable things. Kutasthah is the one existing as Maya: Kuta means a heap; kutasthah, is that which exists like a heap. Or, kuta is maya, deception, falsehood, crookedness, which are synonymous; that which exists in the diverse forms of maya etc. is the kutasthah. It is ucyate, called; the aksarah, immutable, because, owing to the countless seeds of worldly existence, it does not perish.