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 760

III ADHYAYA, 4 PÂDA, 27.
307
for all works enjoined on the asramas, and that there is not absolute non-regard.—But do not the two Satras thus contradict each other 2-By no means, we reply. Knowledge having once sprung up requires no help towards the accomplishment of its fruit, but it does stand in need of something else with a view to its own origination. Why S07On account of the scriptural statements of sacrifices and so on. For the passage, 'Him Brâhmanas seek to know by the study of the Veda, by sacrifice, by gifts, by penance, by fasting' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 22), declares that sacrifices and so on are means of knowledge, and as the text connects them with the 'seeking to know,' we conclude that they are, more especially, means of the origination of knowledge. Similarly the passage, “What people call sacrifice that is really brahmakarya' (Kh. Up. VIII, 5, 1), by connecting sacrifices and so on with brahmakarya which is a means of knowledge, intimates that sacrifices &c. also are means of knowledge. Again the passage,
That word which all the Vedas record, which all penances proclaim, desiring which men live as religious students, that word I tell thee briefly, it is Om' (Ka. Up. I, 2, 15), likewise intimates that the works enjoined on the asramas are means of knowledge. Similarly Smriti says, “Works are the washing away of uncleanliness, but knowledge is the highest way. When the impurity has been removed, then knowledge begins to act.'
The phrase, as in the case of the horse,' supplies an illustration on the ground of suitability. As the horse, owing to its specific suitability, is not employed for dragging ploughs but is harnessed to chariots; so the works enjoined on the asramas are not required by knowledge for bringing about its results, but with a view to its own origination.
27. But all the same he (who is desirous of knowledge) must be possessed of calmness, subjection of the senses, &c., since those (states) are enjoined as auxiliaries to that (viz. knowledge), and must on that account) necessarily be accomplished.
X
2
Digitized by
Digilzed by Google