Questions of King Milinda Part 02

SR No.: 007682
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

Page 1146

III ADHYAYA, 2 PÂDA, 2.
133
SECOND PÅDA. REVERENCE TO THE HIGHEST Self! 1. In the intermediate place there is a real) creation ; for (scripture) says (that).
In the preceding pada we have set forth, with reference to the knowledge of the five fires, the various stages of the soul's passing through the samsára. We shall now set forth the soul's different states (waking, dreaming, &c.)
-Scripture says (Bri. Up. IV, 3, 9; 10), When he falls asleep -; there are no chariots in that state, no horses, no roads, but he himself creates chariots, horses, and roads,' &c.—Here a doubt arises whether the creation thus taking place in dreams is a real one (päramärthika) like the creation seen in the waking state, or whether it consists of illusion (mâyà).—The pärvapakshin maintains that in the intermediate place (or state) there is a real) creation.' By intermediate place we have to understand the place of dreams, in which latter sense the word is used in the Veda, • There is a third intermediate state, the state of dreams' (Bri. Up. IV, 3, 9). That place is called the intermediate place because it lies there where the two worlds, or else the place of waking and the place of bliss (deep sleep), join. In that intermediate place the creation must be real; because scripture, which is authoritative, declares it to be so, 'He creates chariots, horses, roads,' &c. We, moreover, infer this from the concluding clause, 'He indeed is the maker' (Bri. Up. IV, 3, 10).
2. And some (state the Self to be) the shaper (creator); sons and so on (being the lovely things which he shapes).
Moreover the members of one såkhà state that the Self is, in that intermediate state, the shaper of lovely things, "He, the person who is awake in us while we are asleep, shaping one lovely thing after another' (Ka. Up. II, 5, 8).
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