Of these (soul, not-soul, and the Lord), individual spirits, or souls, consisting of uncontracted and unlimited pure knowledge, but enveloped in illusion, that is, in works from all eternity, undergo contraction and expansion of knowledge according to the degrees of their merits. Soul experiences fruition, and after reaping pleasures and pains proportionate to merits and demerits, there ensues knowledge of the Lord, or attainment of the sphere of the Lord. Of things which are not-soul, and which are objects of fruition (or experience of pleasure and pain), unconsciousness, unconduciveness to the end of man, susceptibility of modification, and the like, are the properties. Of the Supreme Lord the attributes are subsistence, as the internal controller (or animator) of both the subjects and the objects of fruition; the boundless glory of illimitable knowledge, dominion, majesty, power, brightness, and the like, the countless multitude of auspicious qualities; the generation at will of all things other than himself, whether spiritual or non-spiritual; various and infinite adornment with unsurpassable excellence, singular, uniform, and divine. Veṅkaṭa-nátha has given the following distribution of things:-- "Those who know it have declared the principle to be twofold, substance and non-substance; "Substance is dichotomised as unsentient and sentient; the former being the unevolved (_avyakta_), and time. "The latter is the 'near' (_pratyak_) and the 'distant' (_parák_); the 'near' being twofold, as either soul or the Lord; "The 'distant' is eternal glory and intelligence; the other principle some have called the unsentient primary." Of these-- "Substance undergoes a plurality of conditions; the originant is possessed of goodness and the other cords; "Time has the form of years, &c.; soul is atomic and cognisant; the other spirit is the Lord; "Eternal bliss has been declared as transcending the three cords (or modes of phenomenal existence), and also as characterised by goodness; "The cognisable manifestation of the cognisant is intelligence; thus are the characteristics of substance summarily recounted." Of these (soul, not-soul, and the Lord), individual spirits, called souls, are different from the Supreme Spirit and eternal. Thus the text: Two birds, companions, friends, &c. (Rig-Veda, i. 164, 20). Accordingly it is stated (in the aphorisms of Kaṇáda, iii. 2, 20), Souls are diverse by reason of diversity of conditions. The eternity of souls is often spoken of in revelation-- "The soul is neither born, nor dies, nor having been shall it again cease to be; "Unborn, unchanging, eternal, this ancient of days is not killed when the body is killed" (Bhagavad-gítá, ii. 20).