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VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
follows that the object of that cognition, viz. fire itself, is likewise unreal. Nor can it be shown that in the case of Brahman) there is no possibility of ulterior sublative cognition ; for there may be such sublative cognition, viz. the one expressed in the judgment the Reality is a Void.' And if you say that this latter judgment rests on error, we point out that according to yourself the knowledge of Brahman is also based on error. And of our judgment (viz. 'the Reality is a Void ') it may truly be said that all further negation is impossible.—But there is no need to continue this demolition of an altogether baseless theory.
No scriptural texts teach a Brahman devoid of all
difference. We now turn to the assertion that certain scriptural texts, as e. g. 'Being only was this in the beginning,' are meant to teach that there truly exists only one homogeneous substance, viz. Intelligence free from all difference.This we cannot allow. For the section in which the quoted text occurs, in order to make good the initial declaration that by the knowledge of one thing all things are known, shows that the highest Brahman which is denoted by the term 'Being' is the substantial and also the operative cause of the world; that it is all-knowing, endowed with all powers; that its purposes come true; that it is the inward principle, the support and the ruler of everything; and that distinguished by these and other good qualities it constitutes the Self of the entire world; and then finally proceeds to instruct Svetaketu that this Brahman constitutes his Self also (“Thou art that'). We have fully set forth this point in the Vedårtha-samgraha, and shall establish it in greater detail in the present work also, in the so-called arambhana-adhikarana.- In the same way the passage 'the higher knowledge is that by which the Indestructible is apprehended, &c.' (Mu. Up. I, 1, 5) first denies of Brahman all the evil qualities connected with Prakriti, and then teaches that to it there belong eternity, all-pervadingness, subtilty, omnipresence, omniscience, imperish
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