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I ADHYAYA, 4 PÂDA, 14.
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ning with the gross body; whereby it affirms it to be the internal Self within all beings. Again-in the passage,
May I be many, may I grow forth'-it tells how the Self became many, and thereby declares that the creator is nondifferent from the created effects. And—in the passage, 'He created all this whatever there is'-it represents the creator as the Cause of the entire world, and thereby declares him to have been without a second previously to the creation. The same characteristics which in the above passages are predicated of Brahman, viewed as the Cause of the world, we find to be predicated of it in other passages also, so, for instance, 'Being only, my dear, was this in the beginning, one only, without a second. It thought, may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth fire' (Kh. Up. VI, 2, 1; 3), and "In the beginning all this was Self, one only; there was nothing else blinking whatsoever. He thought, shall I send forth worlds ?' (Ait. År. II, 4, 1, 1; 2.) The Vedanta-passages which are concerned with setting forth the cause of the world are thus in harmony throughout.-On the other hand, there are found conflicting state
ments concerning the world, the creation being in some · places said to begin with ether, in other places with fire, and
so on. But, in the first place, it cannot be said that the conflict of statements concerning the world affects the statements concerning the cause, i.e. Brahman, in which all the Vedânta-texts are seen to agree-for that would be an altogether unfounded generalization ;-and, in the second place, the teacher will reconcile later on (II, 3) those conAlicting passages also which refer to the world. And, to consider the matter more thoroughly, a conflict of statements regarding the world would not even matter greatly, since the creation of the world and similar topics are not at all what Scripture wishes to teach. For we neither observe nor are told by Scripture that the welfare of man depends on those matters in any way; nor have we the right to assume such a thing ; because we conclude from the introductory and concluding clauses that the passages about the creation and the like form only subordinate members of passages treating of Brahman. That all the passages
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