39. That our duties only should be done at all times, is the rule laid down by the wise creator; and you cannot attempt to remove it by your subjection to ignorance and idleness.
40. Where is that enlightened sight, that gravity and that patience of yours, that you grovel in this manner in the dark like the blind, and slide from the broad and beaten path laid open for every body? (This path is submission to what is destined by the Divine will, according to the common prayer: “Let not mine, but thy will be done”).
41. Why don’t you consider your case as the sequence of your own acts, and why then do you, who are a wise man, falsely accuse me like the ignorant; (as the cause of what is ordained by the Supreme cause of all!)
42. You know that all living beings have two bodies here, of which one is known as the intellectual or spiritual body or mind.
43. The other is the inert or corporeal frame, which is fragile and perishable. But the minute thing of the mind which lasts until its liberation, is what leads all to their good or evil desires.
44. As the skilful charioteer guides his chariot with care, so is this body conducted by the intelligent mind, with equal attention and fondness.
45. But the ignorant mind which is prone to evil, destroys the goodly body; as little children break their dolls of clay in sport.
46. The mind is hence called the purusha or regent of the body, and the working of the mind is taken for the act of the man. It is bound to the earth by its desires, and freed by its freedom from earthly attractions and expectations.
47. That is called the mind which thinks in itself, “this is my body which is so situated here, and these are the members of my body and this my head.”
48. The mind is called life, for its having the living principle in it; and the same is one and identic with the understanding. It becomes egoism by its consciousness, and so the same mind passes under various designations, according to its different functions.