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of perception contradicts the scriptural statements in question; for perception is competent only to posit the existence of what it cognises and not to deny anything, so that it cannot deny non-difference inasmuch as such a denial will require the cognition of things other than what it actually cognises." The opponent asks: "If Brahman is alone real then who is involved in world bondage, who attains moks, and where from this multiplicity of the world ?"; the Vedāntist answers : "One who aspires after mokṣa seeks to get rid of nescience while the multiplicity of the world too arises from nescience.” The opponent asks : “But what is this nescience ? For if it is something different from Brahman then why preach the doctrine of nondifference, if it one with Brahman then how to get rid of it ?"; the Vedāntist answers : "Such difficulties arise only in the case of positive entities, but nescience is a non-entity inasmuch as it is of the form of a non-apprehension of what is real." The opponent asks : "Nonapprehension on whose part ? For Brahman must be ever all-knowing while there is nothing else to act as the seat of nescience"; the Vedāntist answers : "Nescience belongs to an individual soul, not to Brahman."l0 The opponent asks: "What are these individual souls ? Are they something different from Brahman or something nondifferent ?"; the Vedāntist answers : “The individual souls are nothing different from Brahman just as the sparks scattered by a lump-of-fire are apparently different from this lump-of-fire and yet are themselves of the form of fire."!! The opponent asks : “Then does nescience belong to Brahman itself ?''; the Vedāntist answers : "No, take an analogy. The sky is one and yet depending on the coverages like jar, cloth etc. there variously appear sky-confined-to jar, sky-confined-tocloth etc. while in that state they also experience a defilement caused by dust, smoke etc.; on the otherhand, when these coverages are gone the defilement also goes and these various 'skies' get dissolved in one great sky. Similarly, the individual souls experience all sorts of defilement caused owing to the difference falsely introduced by nescience while they get dissolved into one great Brahman when nescience is no more."!2 The opponent objects : “But that should involve a mutual dependence. For it is nescience that differentiates Brahman into individual souls while it is an individual soul that suffers from nescience"; the Vedāntist answers: “How does that matter? After all, the whole thing is an affair of nescience. As for the series of a nescience and an individual soul being beginningless,
