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276
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
the parts we find that the entire section has for its subject the knowledge of Vaisvânara. The text at first informs us that six Rishis—Prakinasala, &c., up to Uddalakabeing unable to reach a firm foundation in the knowledge of Vaisvanara, went to the king Asvapati Kaikeya; goes on to mention the object of each Rishi's meditation, viz. the sky and so on; determines that the sky and so on are only the head and so on of Vaisvanara-in the passage " he said : that is but the head of the Self,' and the later similar passages ;-—and thereupon rejects all meditations on Vaisvanara in his distributed form, in the passage, ‘Your head would have fallen if you had not come to me,' and so on. Finally having discarded all distributed meditation it turns to the meditation on the aggregate Vaisvânara and declares that all results rest on him only, he eats food in all worlds, in all beings, in all Selfs.' - That the text mentions special fruits for the special meditations on Sutegas and so on we have, in accordance with our view, to explain as meaning that the results of the subordinate meditations are to be connected in their aggregate with the principal meditation. And that the text exhibits a special verb-'you do meditate'-in connexion with each member is not meant to enjoin special meditations on those members, but merely to make additional remarks about something which has another purpose (i.e. about the meditation on the aggregate Vaisvanara). -For all these reasons the view according to which the text enjoins a meditation on the aggregate Vaisvanara only is preferable.
Some commentators here establish the conclusion that the meditation on the aggregate Vaisvânara is the preferable alternative, but assume, on the ground of the Satra employing the term 'pre-eminence' only, that the Sûtrakâra allows also the alternative of distributed meditation. But this is inadmissible, since it is improper to assume a 'split of the sentence' (i.e. to ascribe to a passage a double meaning), as long as the passage may be understood as having one meaning only. Their interpretation, moreover, contradicts those passages which expressly blame distributed meditations; such as “Thy head would have
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| SR No. | 007681 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 01 |
| 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 |