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I ADHYAYA, I PÂDA, 7.
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sacrifice (the gyotishtoma) as well as a flame. How then does it follow from the word 'Self' that the thinking (ascribed to the cause of the world) is not to be taken in a figurative sense?
To this last argumentation the Sûtrakâra replies:
7. (The pradhâna cannot be designated by the term 'Self') because release is taught of him who takes his stand on that (the Sat).
The non-intelligent pradhâna cannot be the object of the term 'Self' because in the passage Kh. Up. VI, 2 ff., where the subtle Sat which is under discussion is at first referred to in the sentence, 'That is the Self,' and where the subsequent clause, 'That art thou, O Svetaketu,' declares the intelligent Svetaketu to have his abode in the Self, a passage subsequent to the two quoted (viz. ' a man who has a teacher obtains true knowledge; for him there is only delay as long as he is not delivered, then he will be perfect') declares final release. For if the non-intelligent pradhâna were denoted by the term 'Sat,' and did comprehend-by means of the phrase 'That art thou'-persons desirous of final release who as such are intelligent, the meaning could only be 'Thou art non-intelligent;' so that Scripture would virtually make contradictory statements to the disadvantage of man, and would thus cease to be a means of right knowledge. But to assume that the faultless sâstra is not a means of right knowledge, would be contrary to reason. And if the sâstra, considered as a means of right knowledge, should point out to a man desirous of release, but ignorant of the way to it, a non-intelligent Self as the real Self, he would-comparable to the blind man who had caught hold of the ox's tail1-cling to the view of that being the Self,
A wicked man meets in a forest a blind person who has lost his way, and implores him to lead him to his village; instead of doing so the wicked man persuades the blind one to catch hold of the tail of an ox, which he promises would lead him to his place. The consequence is that the blind man is, owing to his trustfulness, led even farther astray, and injured by the bushes, &c., through which the ox drags him.
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