Acharya Kundakunda, in Samayasāra, turns again and again to vivid metaphors to illuminate the distinction between the pure soul and its changing conditions. The soul is likened to gold that remains gold whether fashioned into bracelets or necklaces; the ornaments stand for the many bodies and states, while the underlying metal represents the unaltered conscious substance. In a similar vein, clay and pots serve to distinguish enduring substance from transient modes: pots are formed and broken, yet clay persists. These images underscore a central insight: change belongs to forms and states, not to the essential reality of the jīva.

Other metaphors highlight how the soul only appears to be modified by its associations. A clear crystal seems red or blue in the presence of colored objects, yet remains intrinsically colorless; so too the soul seems happy, miserable, virtuous, or sinful through its connection with karma and body, while in itself it is pure knowing. The lotus growing in muddy water, yet remaining unstained, conveys the same point from another angle: the true self abides amidst karmic and bodily conditions without being intrinsically tainted by them. The image of space (ākāśa), remaining unaffected by the objects it contains, further reinforces this sense of untouched interior purity.

Kundakunda also employs metaphors that stress the soul’s function as knower and illuminator. The lamp and its light illustrate that consciousness illuminates itself and its objects, while the objects of knowledge change without altering the knower’s fundamental nature. The sword that cuts without itself becoming “cut” similarly suggests that the soul knows pleasure, pain, virtue, and vice without becoming those states in its essence. A flickering flame that is still recognized as “the same flame” points to the continuity of the inner self amid fluctuating cognitive and emotional modes.

To clarify the soul’s apparent bondage and its ultimate separateness, several relational analogies are used. The actor and his roles show how one unchanging subject appears in many guises across lifetimes and experiences, yet never ceases to be itself. The mirror and its reflections convey how consciousness can display countless thoughts and images without ever becoming any of them. The sword and sheath, appearing closely joined yet fundamentally distinct, echo the relation between soul and karmic matter. Through such images, Samayasāra invites the seeker to discern the pure witnessing consciousness—stable like gold or crystal—amid the ever-shifting ornaments of body, mind, and karma.