which passages establish the fact that so-called release differs from
all the fruits of action, and is an eternally and essentially
disembodied state. Among eternal things, some indeed may be 'eternal,
although changing' (pari/n/âminitya), viz. those, the idea of whose
identity is not destroyed, although they may undergo changes; such, for
instance, are earth and the other elements in the opinion of those who
maintain the eternity of the world, or the three gu/n/as in the opinion
of the Sâ@nkhyas. But this (moksha) is eternal in the true sense, i.e.
eternal without undergoing any changes (kû/ta/sthanitya), omnipresent as
ether, free from all modifications, absolutely self-sufficient, not
composed of parts, of self-luminous nature. That bodiless entity in
fact, to which merit and demerit with their consequences and threefold
time do not apply, is called release; a definition agreeing with
scriptural passages, such as the following: 'Different from merit and
demerit, different from effect and cause, different from past and
future' (Ka. Up. I, 2, 14). It[72] (i.e. moksha) is, therefore, the same
as Brahman in the enquiry into which we are at present engaged. If
Brahman were represented as supplementary to certain actions, and
release were assumed to be the effect of those actions, it would be
non-eternal, and would have to be considered merely as something holding
a pre-eminent position among the described non-eternal fruits of actions
with their various degrees. But that release is something eternal is
acknowledged by whoever admits it at all, and the teaching concerning
Brahman can therefore not be merely supplementary to actions.

There are, moreover, a number of scriptural passages which declare
release to follow immediately on the cognition of Brahman, and which
thus preclude the possibility of an effect intervening between the two;
for instance, 'He who knows Brahman becomes Brahman' (Mu. Up. III, 2,
9); 'All his works perish when He has been beheld, who is the higher and