8. Since, up to the union with ... Brahman

8. Since, up to the union with that (i.e. Brahman) the texts describe the Samsâra state.

The immortality referred to must necessarily be understood as not implying dissolution of the soul's connexion with the body, since up to the soul's attaining to Brahman the texts describe the Samsâra state. That attaining to Brahman takes place, as will be shown further on, after the soul--moving on the path the first stage of which is light--has reached a certain place. Up to that the texts denote the Samsâra state of which the connexion with a body is characteristic. 'For him there is delay so long as he is not delivered (from the body); then he will be united' (Kh. Up. VI, 14, 2); 'Shaking off all evil as a horse shakes his hairs, and as the moon frees herself from the mouth of Râhu; having shaken off the body I obtain self, made and satisfied, the uncreated world of Brahman' (VIII, 13).