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 1207

194
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
as that breath?' If now we should assume that the term
udgitha’ denotes here the whole act of worship (not only the syllable Om which is a part of the udgîtha), and that (in the passage, they meditated on the udgîtha as that breath ') the performer of that worship, i.e. the Udgåtripriest, is said to be meditated upon as breath ; our interpretation would be open to two objections: in the first place it would be opposed to the introductory sentence (which directly declares the syllable Om to be the object of devotion); and in the second place it would oblige us to take the word udgîtha in they meditated on the udgitha'), not in its direct sense, but as denoting by implication the udgâtri. But the rule is that in one and the same connected passage the interpretation of later passages has to adapt itself to the earlier passages. We therefore conclude the passage last quoted to teach that the syllable Om which is a part of the udgitha is to be meditated upon as prâna.-In the Vågasaneyaka on the other hand there is no reason for taking the word udgîtha to denote a part of the udgitha only, and we therefore must interpret it to denote the whole; and in the passage, 'Do thou sing out for us,' the performer of the worship, i.e. the Udgåtri-priest, is described as prâna. In reply to the pūrvapakshin's remark that in the Vagasaaeyaka also the udgîtha and the prâna occur in co-ordination (in the passage, 'He is udgitha'), we point out that that statement merely aims at showing that the Self of all is that prâna which the text wishes to represent as udgâtri. The statement, therefore, does not imply the unity of the two vidyâs. Moreover, there also the term udgitha denotes the whole act of worship (while in the Khandogya it denotes the omkâra only). Nor must it be said that the prâna can
From which it appears that the Khåndogya enjoins throughout a meditation on the syllable Om which is only a part of the udgîtha; while the object of meditation enjoined in the Brihadâranyaka is the whole udgftha.
* Viz. for the purpose of making out that the object of meditation is the same in the Khandogya and the Brihad-aranyaka.
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