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VEDANTA-SUTRAS.
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be analogous to an injunction such as 'Let him bring that lotus-flower which is blue.'
All these alterations present themselves to the mind, and as there is no reason for deciding in favour of any one, the question must remain an unsettled one.
To this purvapaksha-view the Sûtra replies, 'And on account of extending over the whole, it is appropriate.'
The word 'and' stands here in place of 'but,' and is meant to discard the three other alternatives. Three out of the four alternatives are to be set aside as objectionable; the fourth, against which nothing can be urged, is to be adopted. The objections lying against the first three alternatives are as follows. In the case of adhyâsa we should have to admit that the word which expresses the idea superimposed is not to be taken in its direct sense, but in an implied sense1; and we should moreover have to imagine some fruit for a meditation of that kind 2. Nor can it be said that we need not imagine such a fruit, as scripture itself mentions it in the passage, 'He becomes indeed a fulfiller of desires' (I, 1, 7); for this passage indicates the fruit, not of the ideal superimposition of the udgîtha on the omkåra, but of the meditation in which the omkâra is viewed as the fulfilment of desires.-Against the hypothesis of an apavâda there likewise lies the objection that no fruit is to be seen. The cessation of wrong knowledge can certainly not be alleged as such; for we see no reason why the cessation of the idea that the omkâra is udgîtha and not omkâra or vice versâ should be beneficial to man. Sublation of the one idea by the other is moreover not even possible in our case; for to the omkåra the idea of the omkåra remains always attached, and so to the udgîtha the idea of the udgîtha. The passage, moreover, does not aim at teaching the true
1 I.e. in the present case we should have to assume that the word udgîtha means, by implication, the omkâra.-Recourse may be had to implied meanings only when the direct meaning is clearly impossible.
For a special adhyâsa-meditation must be attended with a special result,
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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 |