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I ADHYAYA, I PÂDA, 4.
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itself, and whether it be of the nature of a cause or of a result.—Let it then be said that what constitutes the qualification in our case is the intuition of the true nature of Brahman (on the part of the person to whom the injunction is addressed).-This, we rejoin, cannot be a cause, as it is not something previously established; while in other cases the nimitta is something so established, as e.g. life' is in the case of a person to whom the following injunction is addressed, 'As long as his life lasts he is to make the Agnihotra-oblation. And if, after all, it were admitted to be a cause, it would follow that, as the intuition of the true nature of Brahman is something permanent, the object of the injunction would have to be accomplished even subsequently to final release, in the same way as the Agnihotra has to be performed permanently as long as life lasts.-Nor again can the intuition of Brahman's true nature be a.result; for then, being the result of an action enjoined, it would be something nonpermanent, like the heavenly world.-What, in the next place, would be the object to be accomplished' of the injunction? You may not reply 'Brahman'; for as Brahman is something permanent it is not something that can be realised, and moreover it is not denoted by a verbal form (such as denote actions that can be accomplished, as e.g. yaga, sacrifice).—Let it then be said that what is to be realised is Brahman, in so far as free from the world But, we rejoin, even if this be accepted as a thing to be realised, it is not the object (vishaya) of the injunction that it cannot be for the second reason just stated but its final result (phala). What moreover is, on this last assumption, the thing to be realised —Brahman, or the cessation of the apparent world ?-Not Brahman; for Brahman is something accomplished, and from your assumption it would follow that it is not eternal. Well then, the dissolution of the world Not so, we reply; for then it would not be Brahman that is realised.-Let it then be said that the dissolution of the world only is the object of the injunction - This, too, cannot be, we rejoin; that dissolution is the result (phala) and cannot therefore be the
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