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VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
earth and the sky are woven.' In the present adhikarana the subject is resumed for the sake of further elucidation.
8. The bhūman (is Brahman), as the instruction about it is additional to that about the state of deep sleep (i.e. the vital air which remains awake even in the state of deep sleep).
We read (Kh. Up. VII, 23; 24), 'That which is much (bhûman) we must desire to understand.-Sir, I desire to understand it.- Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else, that is what is much (bhûman). Where one sees something else, hears something else, understands something else, that is the Little.'-Here the doubt arises whether that which is much is the vital air (prâna) or the highest Self.—Whence the doubt ?—The word 'bhûman,' taken by itself, means the state of being much, according to its derivation as taught by Panini, VI, 4, 158. Hence there is felt the want of a specification showing what constitutes the Self of that muchness. Here there presents itself at first the approximate passage, 'The vital air is more than hope' (Kh. Up. VII, 15, 1), from which we may conclude that the vital air is bhûman.-On the other hand, we meet at the beginning of the chapter, where the general topic is stated, with the following passage, ' I have heard from men like you that he who knows the Self overcomes grief. I am in grief. Do, Sir, help me over this grief of mine;' from which passage it would appear that the bhûman is the highest Self.—Hence there arises a doubt as to which of the two alternatives is to be embraced, and which is to be set aside.
The pûrvapakshin maintains that the bhaman is the vital air,' since there is found no further series of questions and answers as to what is more. For while we meet with a series of questions and answers (such as, 'Sir, is there something which is more than a name?'-'Speech is more than name.'"Is there something which is more than speech? '--'Mind is more than speech '); which extends from name up to vital air, we do not meet with a similar question and answer as to what might be more than vital air (such as, ' Is there something
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