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

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190
VEDÂNTA-SÚTRAS.
man who has not performed the rites does not read this ;' here we conclude from the word 'this' which refers to the subject previously treated, and from the fact of reading' being mentioned, that the rite is an attribute of the study of the Upanishad of the Atharvanikas (but has nothing to do with the Upanishad itself).-But what about the immediately preceding passage, 'Let a man tell this science of Brahman to those only by whom the rite of carrying fire on the head has been performed according to rule?' Here the rite in question is connected with the science of Brahman, and as all science of Brahman is one only, it follows that the rite has to be connected with all science of Brahman -Not so, we reply; for in the above passage also the word 'this' refers back to what forms the subject of the antecedent part of the Upanishad, and that subject is constituted by the science of Brahman only in so far as depending on a particular book (viz. the Mundaka-Upanishad); hence the rite also is connected with that particular book only.-The Sutra adds another illustrative instance in the words and as in the case of the libations there is limitation of that.' As the seven libations—from the saurya libation up to the sataudana libation since they are not connected with the triad of fires taught in the other Vedas, but only with the one fire which is taught in the Atharvan, are thereby enjoined exclusively on the followers of the Atharvan; so the rite of carrying fire on the head also is limited to the study of that particular Veda with which scriptural statements connect it.-The doctrine of the unity of the vidyas thus remains unshaken.
4. (Scripture) also declares this.
The Veda also declares the identity of the vidyas; for all Vedanta-texts represent the object of knowledge as one; cp. e.g. Ka. Up. I, 2, 15, 'That word which all the Vedas record ;' Ait. År. III, 2, 3, 12, 'Him only the Bahvrikas consider in the great hymn, the Adhvaryus in the sacrificial fire, the Khandogas in the Mahavrata ceremony.'—To quote some other instances proving the unity of the vidyâs : Ka. Up. I, 6, 2, mentions as one of the Lord's qualities that he
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