texts such as the following, 'unchangeable he is called,' would thus be
stultified; an altogether unacceptable result. Hence it is impossible to
assume that any action should abide in the Self. On the other hand, the
Self cannot be purified by actions abiding in something else as it
stands in no relation to that extraneous something. Nor will it avail to
point out (as a quasi-analogous case) that the embodied Self (dehin, the
individual soul) is purified by certain ritual actions which abide in
the body, such as bathing, rinsing one's mouth, wearing the sacrificial
thread, and the like. For what is purified by those actions is that Self
merely which is joined to the body, i.e. the Self in so far as it is
under the power of Nescience. For it is a matter of perception that
bathing and similar actions stand in the relation of inherence to the
body, and it is therefore only proper to conclude that by such actions
only that something is purified which is joined to the body. If a person
thinks 'I am free from disease,' he predicates health of that entity
only which is connected with and mistakenly identifies itself with the
harmonious condition of matter (i.e. the body) resulting from
appropriate medical treatment applied to the body (i.e. the 'I'
constituting the subject of predication is only the individual embodied
Self). Analogously that I which predicates of itself, that it is
purified by bathing and the like, is only the individual soul joined to
the body. For it is only this latter principle of egoity
(aha/m/kart/ri/), the object of the notion of the ego and the agent in
all cognition, which accomplishes all actions and enjoys their results.
Thus the mantras also declare, 'One of them eats the sweet fruit, the
other looks on without eating' (Mu. Up. III, 1, 1); and 'When he is in
union with the body, the senses, and the mind, then wise people call him
the Enjoyer' (Ka. Up. III, 1, 4). Of Brahman, on the other hand, the two
following passages declare that it is incapable of receiving any
accretion and eternally pure, 'He is the one God, hidden in all beings,