Questions of King Milinda Part 01

SR No.: 007681
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1890
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 481

28
VEDANTA-SUTRAS.
would not be interfered with by the organs; for we might assume either that the organs are produced first and the elements last; or else that the elements are produced first and the organs last. In the Atharvana-upanishad quoted above we have merely a serial enumeration of the organs and the elements, not a statement as to the order of their origination. Similarly in other places also the series of the organs is recorded apart from the series of the elements; so, for instance, in the following passage, Pragâpati indeed was all this in the beginning, he reflected on himself; he sent forth mind; there was mind only; mind reflected on itself; it sent forth speech,' &c.-Hence the origination of the organs does not cause a break in the order of the origination of the elements.
16. But the designation (as being born and dying) abides in the (bodies of beings) moving and nonmoving; it is secondary (metaphorical) if applied to the soul, as the existence (of those terms) depends on the existence of that (i. e. the body).
On account of certain popular modes of expression such as' Devadatta is born,'' Devadatta has died, and the like, and on account of certain ceremonies such as the Gâtakakarman, some people might fall into the error of thinking that the individual soul has a beginning, and in the end undergoes destruction. This error we are going to dispel. -The individual soul has no beginning and is not subject to dissolution, since thus only it can be connected with the results of actions, as the Sâstra teaches. If the individual soul perished after the body, there would be no sense in the religious injunctions and prohibitions referring to the enjoyment and avoidance of pleasant and unpleasant things in another body (another birth). And scripture says, 'This body indeed dies when the living soul has left it, the living soul does not die' (Kh. Up. VI, 11, 3).—But it has been pointed out above that ordinary language speaks of the birth and the death of the individual soul!-True; but the terms 'birth' and 'death,' if applied to the soul, have to
Digitized by
Google