soul

The commentary calls the soul, named puruṣa, the basis on which treatment with its great benefits rests.

The soul, whose nature is knowledge and perception, is described as bound since beginningless time to a body made by its own karma, and therefore in some respects formless and in some respects embodied; knowledge and perception are its mark, so it is the knower and seer.

The soul is said to be always the doer, to experience the fruit of its own past karma itself (so it is the enjoyer), to be without beginning or end, to stay within the size of its own body and to have the property of contraction and expansion.

The verse says the embodied soul is not atom-sized, nor the size of a grain or a thumb, nor a yojana in extent, nor world-pervading, but always of the size of its body.

Though permanent, that is indestructible, the soul is described as changing through modes such as birth, old age and death and so as also impermanent; it has many excellent qualities, itself experiences sorrow and happiness, and after the destruction of karma reaches imperishable liberation.

Only a physician whose doctrine describes the living soul in this way is said to be able to give treatment that brings happiness to beings, and no other.

If the soul is held to be wholly permanent, treatment is said to be unnecessary, and if wholly momentary, there is no one to treat anyone; so the syādvāda (anekānta) view, supported by reason, scripture and logic, must be adopted, holding the soul permanent in some respects and impermanent in others.