Chapter (অধ্যায়): INDEPENDENCE PAGE-300Page: 300 of 521
If the mind were self-luminous it would be able to cognise itself and its objects at the same time, which it cannot. When it cognises the object, it cannot reflect on itself. Therefore the Purusha is self-luminous, and the mind is not.
चित्तान्तरदृश्ये बुद्धिबुद्धेरतिप्रसङ्गः स्मृतिसङ्करश्च ॥२०॥
20. Another cognising mind being assumed, there will be no end to such assumptions, and confusion of memory will be the result.
Let us suppose there is another mind which cognises the ordinary mind, then there will have to be still another to cognise the former, and so there will be no end to it. It will result in confusion of memory, there will be no storehouse of memory.
चितेरप्रतिसंक्रमायास्तदाकारापत्तौ स्वबुद्धि-संवेदनम् ॥२१॥
21. The essence of knowledge (the Purusha) being unchangeable, when the mind takes its form, it becomes conscious.
Patanjali says this to make it more clear that knowledge is not a quality of the Purusha. When the mind comes near the Purusha it is reflected, as it were, upon the mind, and the mind, for the time being, becomes knowing and seems as if it were itself the Purusha.
द्रष्टृदृश्योपरक्तं चित्तं सर्वार्थम् ॥२२॥
22. Coloured by the seer and the seen the mind is able to understand everything.
On one side of the mind the external world, the seen, is being reflected, and on the other, the seer is being reflected. Thus comes the power of all knowledge to the mind.