Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1With regard to those beginning with Hght a doubt arises whether they are marks of the road, or places of enjoyment, or leaders of the travelling souls. — The first possible view of the question is that light and so on are marks of the road, because the instruction has that character. For as in ordinary life a man wishing to go to a village or a towai is told, ' Go from here to that hill, from there to a fig-tree, from that to a river, from that to a village ; after that you will reach the town;' so here the text also says, 'from light to day, from day to the waxing half of the month/ &c. — Or else light and so on may be viewed as places of enjoyment. For the text connects Agni and so on with the word 'world'; ' He comes to the world of Agni,' &c. Now the term ' world ' is used to denote places of enjoyment of living beings, as when we say, ' The world of men ; the world of the Fathers ; the world of the gods.' A Brahma;/a passage also says, ' They remain attached to the worlds which consist of day and night ' (Sa.t. Bra. X, 2, 6, 8). Therefore light and the rest are not conductors. Moreover, they cannot be conductors because they are without intelligence. For in ordinary life intelligent men only are appointed by the king to conduct travellers over difficult roads.
2To all this we reply as follows. They must be conductors, because the text indicates this. For we read, ' From the moon to the lightning ; there a person that is not a man leads them to Brahman ; ' which shows their conductorship to be something settled. Should it be objected that this last sentence exhausts itself in conveying its own purport ^ ; we say No ; for the attribute (' that is not a man ') has only the meaning of excluding his previously established humanity. Only if in the case of the light and the rest personal conductors are settled, and those of human nature, it is appropriate to use the attribute ^ And has not the additional power of indicating, i. e. enabling us to infer that also the beings previously mentioned are ' leaders ' of the soul. C C 2 o SS VEDANTA-SUTRAS. ' amanava,' to the end of excluding this (previously estabHshed) humanity^. But mere indication has no force, as there is nothing to prove (that there must be such personal conductors). — To this objection the next Sutra replies. 5. (There are personal conductors) because that is established on the ground of both (i. e. road and travellers) being bewildered (i. e. unconscious).
3As, owing to their separation from a body, the organs of those who go on the road beginning with light are wrapped up, they are incapable of ruling themselves ; and the light &c., as they are without intelligence, are equally incapable. Hence it follows that the particular intelligent deities who represent light and the rest are appointed to the conductorship. For in ordinary life also drunken or senseless people whose sense-organs are wrapped up follow a road as commanded by others. — Again light and the rest cannot be taken for marks of the road because they are not always present. A man who dies in the night cannot come to day in its true (physical) nature ; and he cannot wait (for the break of day), as we have already explained above (IV, 2, 19). But this objection does not apply to gods who are permanent. And gods may be called light and so on, because they represent light and so on. Nor is the expression, ' From light to day,' &c. objectionable, even if we adopt the sense of conductorship ; for it means, through the light as cause they come to the day ; through the day as cause, to the waxing half of the moon. And such instruction is seen also in the case of conductors known in ordinary life, for they say, Go hence to Balavarman, thence (i.e. Balavarman conducting you) to 6^ayasiwha, thence to
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1With regard to those beginning with Hght a doubt arises whether they are marks of the road, or places of enjoyment, or leaders of the travelling souls. — The first possible view of the question is that light and so on are marks of the road, because the instruction has that character. For as in ordinary life a man wishing to go to a village or a towai is told, ' Go from here to that hill, from there to a fig-tree, from that to a river, from that to a village ; after that you will reach the town;' so here the text also says, 'from light to day, from day to the waxing half of the month/ &c. — Or else light and so on may be viewed as places of enjoyment. For the text connects Agni and so on with the word 'world'; ' He comes to the world of Agni,' &c. Now the term ' world ' is used to denote places of enjoyment of living beings, as when we say, ' The world of men ; the world of the Fathers ; the world of the gods.' A Brahma;/a passage also says, ' They remain attached to the worlds which consist of day and night ' (Sa.t. Bra. X, 2, 6, 8). Therefore light and the rest are not conductors. Moreover, they cannot be conductors because they are without intelligence. For in ordinary life intelligent men only are appointed by the king to conduct travellers over difficult roads.
2To all this we reply as follows. They must be conductors, because the text indicates this. For we read, ' From the moon to the lightning ; there a person that is not a man leads them to Brahman ; ' which shows their conductorship to be something settled. Should it be objected that this last sentence exhausts itself in conveying its own purport ^ ; we say No ; for the attribute (' that is not a man ') has only the meaning of excluding his previously established humanity. Only if in the case of the light and the rest personal conductors are settled, and those of human nature, it is appropriate to use the attribute ^ And has not the additional power of indicating, i. e. enabling us to infer that also the beings previously mentioned are ' leaders ' of the soul. C C 2 o SS VEDANTA-SUTRAS. ' amanava,' to the end of excluding this (previously estabHshed) humanity^. But mere indication has no force, as there is nothing to prove (that there must be such personal conductors). — To this objection the next Sutra replies. 5. (There are personal conductors) because that is established on the ground of both (i. e. road and travellers) being bewildered (i. e. unconscious).
3As, owing to their separation from a body, the organs of those who go on the road beginning with light are wrapped up, they are incapable of ruling themselves ; and the light &c., as they are without intelligence, are equally incapable. Hence it follows that the particular intelligent deities who represent light and the rest are appointed to the conductorship. For in ordinary life also drunken or senseless people whose sense-organs are wrapped up follow a road as commanded by others. — Again light and the rest cannot be taken for marks of the road because they are not always present. A man who dies in the night cannot come to day in its true (physical) nature ; and he cannot wait (for the break of day), as we have already explained above (IV, 2, 19). But this objection does not apply to gods who are permanent. And gods may be called light and so on, because they represent light and so on. Nor is the expression, ' From light to day,' &c. objectionable, even if we adopt the sense of conductorship ; for it means, through the light as cause they come to the day ; through the day as cause, to the waxing half of the moon. And such instruction is seen also in the case of conductors known in ordinary life, for they say, Go hence to Balavarman, thence (i.e. Balavarman conducting you) to 6^ayasiwha, thence to
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
No commentary for this page.