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I ADHYAYA, I PÅDA, 4.
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—which is the Self-cannot be brought about in any way.—But, if this is so, what then is the use of the comprehension of the texts 7- It is of use, we reply, in so far as it puts an end to the obstacles in the way of Release. This scriptural texts declare: 'You indeed are our father, you who carry us from our ignorance to the other shore' (Pra. Up. VI, 8); 'I have heard from men like you that he who knows the Self overcomes grief. I am in grief. Do, Sir, help me over this grief of mine' (Kh. Up. VII, 1, 3); 'To him whose faults had thus been rubbed out Sanatkumara showed the other bank of Darkness' (Kh. Up. VII, 26, 2). This shows that what is effected by the comprehension of the meaning of texts is merely the cessation of impediments. in the way of Release. This cessation itself, although something effected, is of the nature of that kind of nonexistence which results from the destruction of something existent, and as such does not pass away.-Texts such as 'He knows Brahman, he becomes Brahman' (Mu. Up. III, 2, 9); 'Having known him he passes beyond death' (Svet. Up. III, 8), declare that Release follows immediately on the cognition of Brahman, and thus negative the intervention of injunctions.—Nor can it be maintained that Brahman is related to action in so far as constituting the object of the action either of knowledge or of meditation; for scriptural texts deny its being an object in either of these senses. Compare Different is this from what is known, and from what is unknown' (Ke. Up. III); By whom he knows all this, whereby should he know him ?' (Bri. Up. IV, 5, 15); That do thou know as Brahman, not that on which they meditate as being this' (Ke. Up. IV, 4). Nor does this view imply that the sacred texts have no object at all; for it is their object to put an end to the view of difference springing from avidyà. Scripture does not objectivise Brahman in any definite form, but rather teaches that its true nature is to be non-object, and thereby puts an end to the distinction, fictitiously suggested by Nescience, of knowing subjects, acts of knowledge, and objects of knowledge. Compare the text. You should not see a séer of seeing, you should not think a thinker of
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