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VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
on each other. That the nådis, &c., actually serve the same purpose appears from the circumstance of their being all of them exhibited equally in the locative case, he has entered into the nådis,' he rests in the pericardium,' &c.?
—But in some of the passages quoted the locative case is not employed, so, e.g. in 'He becomes united with that which is' (satå, instrumental case)!—That makes no difference, we reply, because there also the locative case is meant. For in the complementary passage the text states that the soul desirous of rest enters into the Self, 'Finding no rest elsewhere it settles down on breath' (Kh. Up. VI, 8, 2); a passage in which the word 'breath' refers to that which is (the sat). A place of rest of course implies the idea of the locative case. The latter case is, moreover, actually exhibited in a further complementary passage,
When they have become merged in that which is (sati), they know not that they are merged in it.—In all these passages one and the same state is referred to, viz. the state of deep sleep which is characterised by the suspension of all special cognition. Hence we conclude that in the state of deep sleep the soul optionally goes to any one of those places, either the nâdis, or that which is, &c.
To this we make the following reply—The absence of that,' i.e. the absence of dreams—which absence constitutes the essence of deep sleep-takes place in the nâdis and in the Self;' i.e. in deep sleep the soul goes into both together, not optionally into either. How is this known ? * From scripture.'—Scripture says of all those things, the nâdis, &c., that they are the place of deep sleep; and those statements we must combine into one, as the hypothesis of option would involve partial refutation. The assertion
1 The argument of the pûrvapakshin is that the different places in which the soul is said to abide in the state of deep sleep are all exhibited by the text in the same case and are on that account co-ordinate. Mutual relation implying subordination would require them to be exhibited in different cases enabling us to infer the exact manner and degree of relation.
* By allowing option between two Vedic statements we lessen the
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