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II ADHYAYA, 4 PÂDA, 3.
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assertion is to be connected with such passages as the following, 'When we see, hear, perceive, and know the Self, then all this is known' (Bri. Up. II, 4, 5).-How then have we to account for the statement that the prânas existed before the creation ?- That statement, we reply, does not refer to the fundamental causal substance ; for we ascertain from scriptural passages, such as Mu. Up. II, 1, 2 (That heavenly Person is without breath and without mind, pure, higher than the high Imperishable'), that the fundamental causal substance is devoid of all distinctions such as breath and the like. We must rather view the statement about the existence of the prânas before the creation as having for its object a subordinate causal substance, and being made with reference to the effects of the latter only. For it is known from Sruti and Smriti that even in the universe of evolved things many states of being may stand to each other in the relation of causal substance and effect. - In the adhikarana treating of the ether there occurred a Satra (composed of the same syllables) gaunyasambhavât,' which as being the půrvapaksha-sâtra had to be explained as 'gauni asambhavåt,' the statement about the origin of ether must be taken in a secondary sense on account of the impossibility (of the primary sense). There the final conclusion was established by means of the abandonment of the general assertion. Here on the other hand the Satra is the Siddhånta Satra and we have therefore explained it as meaning on account of the impossibility of a secondary meaning::--Those who explain the present Sætra in the same way as the previous Satra overlook the fact of the general assertion being abandoned (viz. if the passages referring to the origin of the prânas were taken in a secondary sense).
3. On account of that (word which indicates origin) being enunciated at first (in connexion with the pranas).
That the scriptural statement about the origin of the
i Such as Hiranyagarbha.
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| SR No. | 007682 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 02 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | T W Rhys Davids |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1894 |
| Total Pages | 2240 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 38 MB |