also can be made only with regard to that which is the Self of all. Further, the passage, * Therefore all who sing to the Vina sing him, and from him also they obtain wealth,' shows that the being spoken of is the sole topic of all worldly songs ; which again holds true of the highest Lord only. That absolute command over the objects of worldly desires (as displayed, for instance, in the bestowal of wealth) entitles us to infer that the Lord is meant, appears also from the following passage of the Bhagavad- gita (X, 41), ' Whatever being there is possessing power, glory, or strength, know it to be produced from a portion of my energy1.' To the objection that the statements about bodily shape contained in the clauses, 'With a beard bright as gold,' &c, cannot refer to the highest Lord, we reply that the highest Lord also may, when he pleases, assume a bodily shape formed of Maya, in order to gratify thereby his devout worshippers. Thus Smriti also says, ' That thou seest me, O Narada, is the Mdya emitted by me ; do not then look on me as endowed with the qualities of all beings.' We have further to note that expressions such as, 'That which is without sound, without touch, without form, without decay,' are made use of where instruction is given about the nature of the highest Lord in so far as he is devoid of all qualities ; while passages such as the following one, ' He to whom belong all works, all desires, all sweet odours and tastes' (KA. Up. Ill, 14, a), which represent the highest Lord as the object of devotion, speak of him, who is the cause of everything, as possessing some of the qualities of his effects. Analogously he may be spoken of, in the passage under discussion, as having a beard bright as gold and so on. With reference to the objection that the highest Lord cannot be meant because an abode is spoken of, we remark that, for the purposes of devout meditation, a special abode may be assigned to Brahman, although it abides in its own glory only ; for as Brahman is, like ether, all-pervading, it may be viewed as
1 So that the real giver of the gifts bestowed by princes on poets and singers is Brahman.
I ADHYAYA, I PADA, 22. 8l
being within the Self of all beings. The statement, finally, about the limitation of Brahman's might, which depends on the distinction of what belongs to the gods and what to the body, has likewise reference to devout meditation only. From all this it follows that the being which Scripture states to be within the eye and the sun is the highest Lord.
21. And there is another one (i.e. the Lord who
is different from the individual souls animating the
sun, &c), on account of the declaration of distinc-
tion.
There is, moreover, one distinct from the individual souls which animate the sun and other bodies, viz. the Lord who rules within; whose distinction (from all individual souls) is proclaimed in the following scriptural passage, ' He who dwells in the sun and within the sun, whom the sun does not know, whose body the sun is, and who rules the sun within ; he is thy Self, the ruler within, the immortal ' (Brz. Up. Ill, 7, 9). Here the expression, ' He within the sun whom the sun does not know/ clearly indicates that the Ruler within is distinct from that cognising individual soul whose body is the sun. With that Ruler within we have to identify the person within the sun, according to the tenet of the sameness of purport of all Vedanta-texts. It thus remains a settled conclusion that the passage under dis- cussion conveys instruction about the highest Lord.
22. The aka^a, i. e. ether (is Brahman) on account
of characteristic marks (of the latter being men-
tioned).
In the KMndogya (I, 9) the following passage is met with, 'What is the origin of this world ? ' ' Ether,5 he replied. 'For all these beings take their rise from the ether only, and return into the ether. Ether is greater than these, ether is their rest.' — Here the following doubt arises. Does the word ' ether' denote the highest Brahman or the elemental ether? — Whence the doubt ? — Because the word is seen to be used in both senses. Its use in the sense of * elemental ether ' is well established in ordinary as well as in Vedic speech ; [34] G
82 vedAnta-s6tras.
and, on the other hand, we see that it is sometimes used to denote Brahman, viz. in cases where we ascertain, either from some complementary sentence or from the fact of special qualities being mentioned, that Brahman is meant. So, for instance, Taitt. Up. II, 7, ' If that bliss existed not in the ether;' and Kk. Up. VIII, 14, < That which is called ether is the revealer of all forms and names ; that within which forms and names are1 that is Brahman.' Hence the doubt. — Which sense is then to be adopted in our case? — The sense of elemental ether, the purvapakshin replies ; because this sense belongs to the word more commonly, and therefore presents itself to the mind more readily. The word ' ether ' cannot be taken in both senses equally, because that would involve a (faulty) attribution of several meanings to one and the same word. Hence the term c ether ' applies to Brahman in a secondary (metaphorical) sense only ; on account of Brahman being in many of its attributes, such as all pervadingness and the like, similar to ether. The rule is, that when the primary sense of a word is possible, the word must not be taken in a secondary sense. And in the passage under discussion only the primary sense of the word ' ether ' is admissible. Should it be objected that, if we refer the passage under discussion to the ele- mental ether, a complementary passage (' for all these beings take their rise from the ether only, &c.') cannot be satisfactorily accounted for; we reply that the elemental ether also may be represented as a cause, viz. of air, fire, &c. in due succession. For we read in Scripture (Taitt. Up. II, 1), ' From that Self sprang ether, from ether air, from air fire, and so on.' The qualities also of being greater and of being a place of rest may be ascribed to the elemental ether, if we consider its relations to all other beings. There- fore we conclude that the word ' ether ' here denotes the elemental ether.
To this we reply as follows : — The word ether must here
be taken to denote Brahman, on account of characteristic
marks of the latter being mentioned. For the sentence,
Or else ' that which is within forms and names.'
I Adhyaya, I Pada, 2 2. 83
' All these beings take their rise from the ether only/ clearly indicates the highest Brahman, since all Vedanta-texts agree in definitely declaring that all beings spring from the highest Brahman. — But, the opponent may say, we have shown that the elemental ether also maybe repre- sented as the cause, viz. of air, fire, and the other elements in due succession. — We admit this. But still there remains the difficulty, that, unless we understand the word to apply to the fundamental cause of all, viz. Brahman, the affirmation contained in the word 'only' and the qualification expressed by the word ' all ' (in ' all beings ') would be out of place. Moreover, the clause, ' They return into the ether,' again points to Brahman, and so likewise the phrase, ' Ether is greater than these, ether is their rest ; y for absolute supe- riority in point of greatness Scripture attributes to the highest Self only; cp. Kk. Up. Ill, 14, 3, 'Greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than heaven, greater than all these worlds." The quality of being a place of rest likewise agrees best with the highest Brahman, on account of its being the highest cause. This is confirmed by the following scriptural passage : ' Knowledge and bliss is Brah- man, it is the rest of him who gives gifts' (Bri. Up. Ill, 9, 28). Moreover, Caivali finding fault with the doctrine of 6ala- vatya, on account of (his saman) having an end (K/i. Up. I, 8, 8), and wishing to proclaim something that has no end chooses the ether, and then, having identified the ether with the Udgitha, concludes, ' He is the Udgitha greater than great ; he is without end.' Now this endlessness is a characteristic mark of Brahman. To the remark that the sense of 'elemental ether' presents itself to the mind more readily, because it is the better established sense of the word aklra, we reply, that, although it may present itself to the mind first, yet it is not to be accepted, because we see that qualities of Brahman are mentioned in the com- plementary sentences. That the word aka^a is also used to denote Brahman has been shown already; cp. such passages as, ' Ether is the revealer of all names and forms.' We see, moreover, that various synonyma of aka^a are employed to denote Brahman. So, for instance; Rik Saz/zh.
84 VEDANTA-stjTRAS.
I, 164, 39, 'In which the Vedas are1, in the Imperishable one (i. e. Brahman), the highest, the ether (vyoman), on which all gods have their seat.' And Taitt. Up. Ill, 6, ' This is the knowledge of Bhrzgu and Varuzza, founded on the highest ether (vyoman).' And again, ' Om, ka is Brah- man, ether (kha) is Brahman' (Kk. Up. IV, 10, 5), and 'the old ether ' (Br/. Up. V, 1) 2. And other similar passages. On account of the force of the complementary passage we are justified in deciding that the word ' ether,' although occurring in the beginning of the passage, refers to Brahman. The case is analogous to that of the sentence, c Agni (lit. the fire) studies a chapter,' where the word agni, although occurring in the beginning, is at once seen to denote a boy 3. It is therefore settled that the word ' ether' denotes Brahman.
23. For the same reason breath (is Brahman).
Concerning the udgttha it is said (KL Up. I, 10, 9), ' Prastotrz, that deity which belongs to the prastava, &c.,' and, further on (I, 11, 4; 5), 'Which then is that deity? He said : Breath. For all these beings merge into breath alone, and from breath they arise. This is the deity belonging to the prastava.' With reference to this passage doubt and decision are to be considered as analogous to those stated under the preceding Sutra. For while in some passages — as, for instance, ' For indeed, my son, mind is fastened to prazza,' Kk. Up. VI, 8, 3; and, 'the prazza of prazza,' Bri. Up. IV, 4, 18 — the word 'breath' is seen to denote Brahman, its use
1 Viz. as intimating it. Thus An. Gi. and Go. An. against the accent of rik&h. Saya/za explains rikih as genitive.
2 Ozzzkarasya pratikatvena va^akatvena lakshakatvena va brah- matvam uktam, om iti, kazzz sukhaz/z tasyarthendriyayoga^atvazzz varayitu;?z kham iti, tasya bhutaka^atva/^ vyaseddhum purazzam ity uktam. An. Gi.
3 The doubt about the meaning of a word is preferably to be decided by means of a reference to preceding passages ; where that is not possible (the doubtful word occurring at the beginning of some new chapter) complementary, i. e. subsequent passages have to be taken into consideration.
I Adhyaya, I Pad a, 23. 85
in the sense of a certain modification of air is better estab-
lished in common as well as in Vedic language. Hence
there arises a doubt whether in the passage under dis-
cussion the word pra/za denotes Brahman or (ordinary)
breath. In favour of which meaning have we then to
decide ?