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SVETASVATARA-UPANISHAD.
2. Should time, or nature', or necessity, or chance, or the elements be considered as the cause, or he who is called the person (purusha, vigñânâtmâ)? It cannot be their union either, because that is not selfdependent?, and the self also is powerless, because there is (independent of him) a cause of good and evil .
3. The sages, devoted to meditation and concentration, have seen the power belonging to God himself", hidden in its own qualities (guna). He, being one, superintends all those causes, time, self, and the rest.
48. We meditate on him who (like a wheel) has one felly with three tires, sixteen ends, fifty spokes, with twenty counter-spokes, and six sets of eight;
i Svabhâva, their own nature or independent character. • Union presupposes a uniter.
s Atmâ is explained by Sankara as the givah, the living self, and as that living self is in his present state determined by karman, work belonging to a former existence, it cannot be thought of as an independent cause.
• Devâtmasakti is a very important term, differently explained by the commentators, but meaning a power belonging to the Deva, the Isvara, the Lord, not independent of him, as the Sânkhyas represent Prakriti or nature. Herein lies the important distinction between Vedânta and Sankhya.
Kâlâtmabhyâm yuktani, kâlapurushasamyuktâni svabhâvâdîni. Ātman is here taken as synonymous with purusha in verse 2.
It is difficult to say whether this verse was written as a summing up of certain technicalities recognised in systems of philosophy existing at the time, or whether it is a mere play of fancy. I prefer the former view, and subjoin the explanation given by Sankara, though it is quite possible that on certain points he may be mistaken. The îsvara or deva is represented as a wheel with one felly, which would seem to be the phenomenal world. It is called trivrit, threefold, or rather having three tires, three bands or hoops to bind the felly, these tires being intended for the three gunas of the prakriti, the Sattva, Ragas, and Tamas. In the Brahmopanishad (Bibl. Ind.
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