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VEDANTA-SUTRAS.
reasons as detailed under I, I and ff.-has been ascertained by us to be the true one, viz. that the omniscient Brahman alone is the cause of the world?-Our objection, the pûrvapakshin replies, will perhaps not appear valid to persons of independent thought; but as most men depend in their reasonings on others, and are unable to ascertain by themselves the sense of Sruti, they naturally rely on Smritis, composed by celebrated authorities, and try to arrive at the sense of Sruti with their assistance; while, owing to their esteem for the authors of the Smritis, they have no trust in our explanations. The knowledge of men like Kapila Smriti declares to have been rishi-like and unobstructed, and moreover there is the following Sruti-passage, 'It is he who, in the beginning, bears in his thoughts the son, the rishi, kapila', whom he wishes to look on while he is born (Sve. Up. V, 2). Hence their opinion cannot be assumed to be erroneous, and as they moreover strengthen their position by argumentation, the objection remains valid, and we must therefore attempt to explain the Vedanta-texts in conformity with the Smritis.
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This objection we dispose of by the remark,' It is not so because therefrom would result the fault of want of room for other Smritis.'-If you object to the doctrine of the Lord being the cause of the world on the ground that it would render certain Smritis purposeless, you thereby render purposeless other Smritis which declare themselves in favour of the said doctrine. These latter Smriti-texts we will quote in what follows. In one passage the highest Brahman is introduced as the subject of discussion, 'That which is subtle and not to be known;' the text then goes on, 'That is the internal Self of the creatures, their soul,' and after that remarks 'From that sprang the Unevolved, consisting of the three gunas, O best of Brâhmanas.' And in another place it is said that 'the Unevolved is
1 On the meaning of 'kapila' in the above passage, compare the Introduction to the Upanishads, translated by Max Müller, vol. ii, p. xxxviii ff.-As will be seen later on, Sankara, in this bhashya, takes the Kapila referred to to be some rishi.
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