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VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
of the thing does not gratify. The pleasure which stories give to children and sick people is due to the fact that they erroneously believe them to be true; if they were to find out that the matter present to their thought is untrue their pleasure would come to an end that very moment. And thus in the case of the texts of the Upanishads also. If we thought that these texts do not mean to intimate the real existence of Brahman, the mere idea of Brahman to which they give rise would not satisfy us in any way.
The conclusion therefore is that texts such as 'That from whence these beings are born' &c. do convey valid instruction as to the existence of Brahman, i.e. that being which is the sole cause of the world, is free from all shadow of imperfection,comprises within itself all auspicious qualities, such as omniscience and so on, and is of the nature of supreme bliss.—Here terminates the adhikarana of connexion.'
5. On account of seeing (i. e. thinking) that which is not founded on Scripture (i. e. the Pradhâna) is not (what is taught by the texts referring to the origination of the world).
We have maintained that what is taught by the texts relative to the origination of the world is Brahman, omniscient, and so on. The present Satra and the following Satras now add that those texts can in no way refer to the Pradhana and similar entities which rest on Inference only.
We read in the Khåndogya, 'Being only was this in the beginning, one only, without a second.-It thought, may I be many, may I grow forth.—It sent forth fire' (VI, 2, I ff.)-Here a doubt arises whether the cause of the world denoted by the term 'Being' is the Pradhana, ássumed by others, which rests on Inference, or Brahman as defined by us.
The Pârvapakshin maintains that the Pradhana is meant. For he says, the Khandogya text quoted expresses the causal state of what is denoted by the word 'this,' viz. the aggregate of things comprising manifold effects, such as ether. &c., consisting of the three elements of Goodness,
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