The Jīva Is Free of Modifications

Denying the mutability of the jīva [quality no. 4], Śrī Dattātreya told Yadu:

visargādyāḥ śmaśānāntā bhāvā dehasya nātmanaḥ kalānām iva candrasya kālenāvyakta-vartmanā

The various states beginning with birth and ending with death are caused by time, whose course cannot be ascertained. They belong to the body alone and not to the ātmā, just as the phases of the moon [come and go without affecting the moon itself]. (SB 11.7.48)

Due to its being a fluid orb, the moon does nothing more than reflect the light of the sun according to its different phases. Its [apparent] waxing and waning are those of the phases and not of the moon itself. Similarly, the different states beginning with birth and ending with death are of the body alone, brought about by the passage of time, the course of which cannot be ascertained, and do not appertain to the ātmā.

Commentary

We see the moon waxing and waning, but in reality the moon does not wax or wane. Similarly, only the body undergoes various changes, beginning with birth and culminating in death, but not the jīva. That the jīva is unchanging is corroborated by our personal experience of being the same person throughout childhood, adolescence, youth, and maturity, even though the body has undergone changes.

Time is here called avyakta-vartma, or that whose path is unmanifest. This means that we do not directly perceive the movement of time, but only infer its existence from the changes it brings about. We have no sense faculty that allows for the direct perception of time, but we account for it by seeing change or movement in some object, such as the movement of the sun or a change in one’s own body. In truth, time does not move. It only effects changes in matter, which give us the sense of its movement, just as when sitting in a departing train the platform appears to be moving when it is only the train that moves. Time is one of the general causes behind all actions or changes.

Śrī Jīva refers to the moon as being fluid, or watery, in nature (jala-maya). This is the belief of Indian Jyotish, or astronomy, though not supported by modern scientific finding. One of the names of the moon in Sanskrit is abja (Amarakośa 1.3.14), which literally means “water-born.” According to the popular myth of the churning of the ocean, samudra-manthana, the moon was one of the objects extracted from the churning of the sea (MB 1.18.37). Thus, the moon is believed to be watery, and it reflects the sun’s rays, which make it look effulgent.