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અદ્વૈત પ્રતિપાદન કરવાનું. શંકરાચાર્યે વિવિધ દષ્ટા આવા જ આશયથી
જ્યાં છે. પણ પાછળના વખતમાં તે તે દષ્ટાન્તને વળગી પડીને જુદા જુદા વાદને વિરોધ ઉપજાવવામાં આવ્યું છે તે આ તાત્પર્ય ન સમજવાથી જ. બ્રહ્મને કઈ પણ દષ્ટાન્ત લાગુ પડી શકે જ નહિ–જડને ચિંતન્ય દષ્ટાન્તથી કથવું, કે ચૈતન્યને જડના દૃષ્ટાન્તથી કથવું એ ખોટું
છે, અને છતાં એમનાં સ્વરૂપ સમજાવવા માટે એવાં દષ્ટાન્ત લીધા વિના ચાલતું નથી. દષ્ટાને લઈને યાદ રાખવાની વાત એટલી જ છે કે દષ્ટાન્ત
* The dread of anthropomorphism is childish. We cannot help the use of figures of speech, and if we discard some, we are sure to make use of others. Who but a pedant would object to our speaking allegorically and metaphorically of the sun rising, of the sea roaring, of the wind whispering; or of the mind as clear, or calm, or cloudy? All human speech is a mosaic of symbols, which we use consciously or unconsciously. Do yon know more or less of the sun or the sea, when we describe them in figurative language gathered from human nature, or when we adopt the strictly scientific phrases of astronomy or physiography ? Similarly, do we know more or less of the soul when we describe it in terms fetched from outward Nature, or from its own interior realm ? It would seem that we discern the state of the case most clearly, and record our insight best, when we gather our phrases in each instance from the opposite realm; when we describe Mind in teims of matter, and Matter in teims of mind. If this be so, it will also be found that, in thc moments of highest insight into what is mysterious, and hidden from our faculties, we instinctively clothe our insight in the raiment of metaphor, While we perhaps feel that "all that we know is that we know nothing," we nevertheless succeed best, in expressing the little we do know when we set it forth symbolically. We get behind the metaphor, we break the shell of allegory, to extract the kerrnnel of fact; but we approach far nearer to the centre of things, when we make use of concrete aids to abstract thought, than when we discard them, and try to reach the shrine of pure beug, per saltunz"-Prof. Fraser,
