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VEDÂNTA-SÓTRAS.
within understanding,' &c. The declaration of the individual Self being ruled by the Ruler within implies of course the declaration of the former being different from the latter.
The conclusion from all this is that the Ruler within is a being different from the individual soul, viz. the highest Self free from all evil, Narayana.—Here terminates the adhikarana of the internal Ruler.'
22. That which possesses the qualities of invisibility, &c., on account of the declaration of attributes.
The Åtharvanikas read in their text, 'The higher knowledge is that by which that Indestructible is apprehended. That which is invisible, unseizable, without origin and qualities, &c., that it is which the wise regard as the source of all beings'; and further on, 'That which is higher than the high Imperishable' (Mu. Up. I, 1, 5, 6; II, 1, 2). The doubt here arises whether the Indestructible, possessing the qualities of imperceptibility, &c., and that which is higher than the Indestructible, should be taken to denote the Pradhåna and the soul of the Sankhyas, or whether both denote the highest Self.—The Pārvapakshin maintains the former alternative. For, he says, while in the text last discussed there is mentioned a special attribute of an intelligent being, viz. in the clause 'unseen but a seer,' no similar attribute is stated in the former of the two texts under discussion, and the latter text clearly describes the collective individual soul, which is higher than the imperishable Pradhana, which itself is higher than all its effects. The reasons for this decision are as follows :-Colour and so on reside in the gross forms of non-intelligent matter, viz. the elements, earth, and so on. When, therefore, visibility and so on are expressly negatived, such negation suggests a non-sentient thing cognate to earth, &c., but of a subtle kind, and such a thing is no other than the Pradhana. And as something higher than this Pradhana there are known the collective souls only, under whose guidance the Pradhana gives birth to all its effects, from the so-called Mahat downwards
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