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· VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS. :
in the whole world which is referred to in the clause 'All this is Brahman' we have to understand the highest Brahman-which the term 'Brahman' denotes as the Self of the world, and not the individual soul ; ' because there is taught what is known,' i.e. because the clause 'All this is Brahman'—for which clause the term 'taggalan' supplies the reason-refers to Brahman as something generally known. Since the world springs from Brahman, is merged in Brahman, and depends on Brahman for its life, therefore -as the text says All this has its Self in Brahman'; and this shows to us that what the text understands by Brahman is that being from which, as generally known from the Vedânta-texts, there proceed the creation, and so on, of the world. That the highest Brahman only, all-wise and supremely blessed, is the cause of the origin, &c., of the world, is declared in the section which begins, 'That from which these beings are born,' &c., and which says further on, he knew that Bliss is Brahman, for from bliss these beings are born' (Taitt. Up. III, 6); and analogously the text 'He is the cause, the lord of lords of the organs,' &c. (Svet. Up. VI. o), declares the highest Brahman to be the cause of the individual soul. Everywhere, in fact, the texts proclaim the causality of the highest Self only. As thus the world which springs from Brahman, is merged in it; and breathes through it, has its Self in Brahman, the identity of the two may properly be asserted; and hence the text-the meaning of which is 'Let a man meditate with calm mind on the highest Brahman of which the world is a mode, which has the world for its body, and which is the Self of the world'—first proves Brahman's being the universal Self, and then enjoins meditation on it. The highest Brahman, in its causal condition as well as in its 80-called 'effected' state, constitutes the Self of the world, for in the former it has for its body all sentient and nonsentient beings in their subtle form, and in the latter the same beings in their gross condition. Nor is there any contradiction between such identity with the world on Brahman's part, and the fact that Brahman treasures within itself glorious qualities antagonistic to all evil ; for the
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