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I ADHYAYA, I PÂDA, 17.
16. (The Self consisting of bliss is the highest Self,) not the other (i. e. the individual Soul), on account of the impossibility (of the latter assumption).
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And for the following reason also the Self consisting of bliss is the highest Self only, not the other, i. e. the one which is other than the Lord, i. e. the transmigrating individual soul. The personal soul cannot be denoted by the term 'the one consisting of bliss.' Why? On account of the impossibility. For Scripture says, with reference to the Self consisting of bliss, 'He wished, may I be many, may I grow forth. He brooded over himself. After he had thus brooded, he sent forth whatever there is.' Here, the desire arising before the origination of a body, &c., the nonseparation of the effects created from the creator, and the creation of all effects whatever, cannot possibly belong to any Self different from the highest Self.
17. And on account of the declaration of the difference (of the two, the ânandamaya cannot be the transmigrating soul).
The Self consisting of bliss cannot be identical with the transmigrating soul, for that reason also that in the section treating of the Self of bliss, the individual soul and the Self of bliss are distinctly represented as different; Taitt. Up. II, 7, 'It (i.e. the Self consisting of bliss) is a flavour; for only after perceiving a flavour can this (soul) perceive bliss.' For he who perceives cannot be that which is perceived. But, it may be asked, if he who perceives or attains cannot be that which is perceived or attained, how about the following Sruti- and Smriti-passages, 'The Self is to be sought;' 'Nothing higher is known than the attainment of the Self1?'-This objection, we reply, is legitimate (from the point of view of absolute truth). Yet we see that in ordinary life, the Self, which in reality is never anything
1 Yadi labdhâ na labdhavyah katham tarhi paramâtmano vastuto bhinnena gîvâtmanâ paramâtmâ labhyata ity arthah. Bhâmatî.
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