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I ADHYAYA, I PÂDA, I.
thinks of himself (his Self) as stout, lean, fair, as standing, walking, or jumping. Attributes of the sense-organs, if he thinks I am mute, or deaf, or one-eyed, or blind.' Attributes of the internal organ when he considers himself subject to desire, intention, doubt, determination, and so on. Thus the producer of the notion of the Ego (i.e. the internal organ) is superimposed on the interior Self, which, in reality, is the witness of all the modifications of the internal organ, and vice versâ the interior Self, which is the witness of everything, is superimposed on the internal organ, the senses, and so on. In this way there goes on this natural beginning-and endless superimposition, which appears in the form of wrong conception, is the cause of individual souls appearing as agents and enjoyers (of the results of their actions), and is observed by every one.
With a view to freeing one's self from that wrong notion which is the cause of all evil and attaining thereby the knowledge of the absolute unity of the Self the study of the Vedanta-texts is begun. That all the Vedanta-texts have the mentioned purport we shall show in this so-called Sârîraka-mîmâmsâ1.
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Of this Vedanta-mîmâmsâ about to be explained by us the first Sutra is as follows.
1. Then therefore the enquiry into Brahman.
The word then' is here to be taken as denoting immediate consecution; not as indicating the introduction of a new subject to be entered upon; for the enquiry into Brahman (more literally, the desire of knowing Brahman) is not of that nature 2. Nor has the word 'then' the sense
The Mîmâmsâ, i. e. the enquiry whose aim it is to show that the embodied Self, i.e. the individual or personal soul is one with Brahman. This Mîmâmsâ being an enquiry into the meaning of the Vedanta-portions of the Veda, it is also called Vedanta-mîmâmsâ.
Nâdhikârârtha iti. Tatra hetur brahmeti. Asyârthah, kim ayam athasabdo brahmaganekkhâyâh kim vântarnîtavikârasya athavekkhâviseshanagñânasyârambhârthah. Nâdyah tasyâ mîmâmsâpravartikâyâs tadapravartyatvâd anârabhyatvât tasyâs kottaratra
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