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INTRODUCTION.
XV
what cannot be known, rather than by unknown, as every one would be inclined to translate these words at first sight? If he had done so, he would have seen in a moment, that without the change which I introduced in the idiom, the translation would not have conveyed the sense of the original, nay, would have conveyed no sense at all. What could Svetaketu have answered, if his father had asked him, whether he had not asked for that instruction by which what is not heard becomes heard, what is not comprehended becomes comprehended, what is not known becomes known? He would have answered, 'Yes, I have asked for it; and from the first day on which I learnt the Siksha, the ABC, I have every day heard something which I had not heard before, I have comprehended something which I had not comprehended before, I have known something which I had not known before. Then why does he say in reply, 'What is that instruction?' Surely Mr. Nehemiah Goreh knew that the instruction which the father refers to, is the instruction regarding Brahman, and that in all which follows the father tries to lead his son by slow degrees to a knowledge of Brahman?. Now that Brahman is called again and again that which cannot be seen, cannot be heard, cannot be perceived, cannot be conceived,' in the ordinary sense of these words; can be learnt, in fact, from the Veda only. It was in order to bring out this meaning that I translated asrutam not by not heard,' but by 'not hearable,' or, in better English, by 'what cannot be heards.'
1 In the Vedanta-Sara, Sadananda lays great stress on the fact that in this very chapter of the Khandogya-upanishad, the principal subject of the whole chapter is mentioned both in the beginning and in the end. Tatra prakaranapratipâdyasyârthasya tadâdyantayor upâdânam upakramasamhâram. Yathâ Khândogyashashthaprapathake prakaranapratipadyasyâdvitîyavastuna ekam evâdvitiyam (VI, 2, 1) ityâdâv aitadâtmyam idam sarvam (VI, 16, 3) ity ante ka pratipâdanam. The beginning with and ending with' imply that the matter to be declared in any given section is declared both at the beginning and at the end thereofas, for instance, in the sixth section of the Khandogya-upanishad, 'the Real, besides which there is nought else'-which is to be explained in that section—is declared at the outset in the terms, 'One only, without a second,' and at the end in the terms 'All this consists of That.'
• Vedanta-Sâra, No. 118, tatraivâdvitiyavastuno mânântarâvishayikaranam. • See Mund. Up. I, 1, 6, adresyam agrâhyam.
Digitized by Google
| SR No. | 007674 |
| Book Title | Dhammapada |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Max Muller |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1881 |
| Total Pages | 2540 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 45 MB |