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86
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
an hour or even a moment only; that is loss, that is great calamity, that is error, that is change.'
The Satra III, 2, 11 does not, as our opponent alleges, refer to a Brahman free from all difference, but to Brahman as possessing attributes--as we shall show in its place. And the Satra IV, 2, 3 declares that the things seen in dreams are mere Mâyâ' because they differ in character from the things perceived in the waking state; from which it follows that the latter things are real.
Nor do Smriti and Purana teach such a dootrine. Nor is it true that also according to Smriti and Puranas only non-differenced consciousness is real and everything else unreal.-—' He who knows me as unborn and without a beginning, the supreme Lord of the worlds' (Bha. Gi. X, 3); All beings abide in me, I abide not in them. Nay, the beings abide not in me-behold my lordly power. My Self bringing forth the beings supports them but does not abide in them' (Bha. Gi. IX, 4, 5); 'I am the origin and the dissolution of the entire world; higher than I there is nothing else : on me all this is strung as pearls on a thread' (Bha. Gî. VII, 6, 7); 'Pervading this entire Universe by a portion (of mine) I abide' (Bha. Gî. X, 42); “But another, the highest Person, is called the highest Self who, pervading the three worlds supports them, the eternal Lord. Because I transcend the Perishable and am higher than the Imperishable even, I am among the people and in the Veda celebrated as the supreme Person' (Bha. Gî. XV, 17, 18).
'He transcends the fundamental matter of all beings, its modifications, properties and imperfections; he transcends all investing (obscuring) influences, he who is the Self of all. Whatever (room) there is in the interstices of the world is filled by him; all auspicious qualities constitute his nature. The whole creation of beings is taken out of a small part of his power. Assuming at will whatever form he desires he bestows benefits on the whole world effected by him. Glory, strength, dominion, wisdom, energy, power and other attributes are collected in him, Supreme of the supreme in whom no troubles abide, ruler over high and
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