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• VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS..
(refer to Brahman) on account of the smallness of the abode, and on account of the denotation of that (viz, minuteness of the being meditated on); we say no, because (Brahman) has thus to be meditated upon, and because (in the same passage) it is said to be like ether.
It might be contended that, as the text he is my Self within the heart' declares the being meditated on to dwell within a minute abode, viz. the heart; and as moreover another text-smaller than a grain of rice,' &c., declares it to be itself of minute size, that being cannot be the highest Self, but only the embodied soul. For other passages speak of the highest Self as unlimited, and of the embodied soul as having the size of the point of a goad (cp. e.g. Mu. Up. I, 1, 6, and Svet. Up. V, 8).-This objection the Sûtra rebuts by declaring that the highest Self is spoken of as such, i. e. minute, on account of its having to be meditated upon as such. Such minuteness does not, however, belong to its true nature; for in the same section it is distinctly declared to be infinite like ether—'greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than heaven, greater than all these worlds' (Kh. Up. III, 14, 3). This shows that the designation of the highest Self as minute is for the purpose of meditation only. The connexion of the whole section then is as follows. The clause' All this is Brahman; let a man meditate with calm mind on this world as beginning, ending, and breathing in Brahman,' enjoins meditation on Brahman as being the Self of all, in so far as it is the cause of the origin and destruction of all, and entering into all beings as their soul gives life to them. The next clause, 'Man is made of thought; according as his thought is in this world, so will he be when he has departed this life,' declares the attainment of the desired object to depend on the nature of the meditation; and the following clause, 'Let him therefore form the following thought,' thereupon repeats the injunction with a view to the declaration of details. The clause He who consists of mind,' &c., up to who is never surprised,' then
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