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246
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
arrive at the following conclusion : Brahman, which-by the passage 'Being only this was in the beginning '-is established as the sole cause of the world, possessing all those manifold wonderful attributes which are ascertained from the complementary passages, is, in the text under discussion, referred to as something already known, by means of the term 'ether.'-Here terminates the adhikarana of 'ether.'
24. For the same reason breath (is Brahman). We read in the Khandogya (I, 10; 11), “Prastotri, that deity which belongs to the Prastáva,' &c.; and further on,
which then is that deity? He said Breath. For all these beings merge into breath alone, and from breath they arise. This is the deity belonging to the Prastáva. If without knowing that deity you had sung forth, your head would have fallen off.' Here the word 'breath,' analogously to the word 'ether,' denotes the highest Brahman, which is different from what is commonly called breath; we infer this from the fact that special characteristics of Brahman, viz. the whole world's entering into and rising from it, are in that text referred to as well-known things. There indeed here arises a further doubt; for as it is a matter of observation that the existence, activity, &c., of the whole aggregate of creatures depend on breath, breath-in its ordinary acceptation—may be called the cause of the world. This doubt is, however, disposed of by the consideration that breath is not present in things such as stones and wood, nor in intelligence itsell, and that hence of breath in the ordinary sense it cannot be said that all beings enter into it,' &c. We therefore conclude that Brahman is here called 'breath' in so far as he bestows the breath of life on all beings. And the general result of the discussion carried on in connexion with the last two Satras thus is that the words 'ether' and 'breath' denote something other than what is ordinarily denoted by those terms, viz. the highest Brahman, the sole cause of this entire world, free from all evil, &c. &c.—Here terminates the adhikarana of breath.'
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