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292
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
means 'embodied in the intestinal fire.'-The Khåndogya text under discussion enjoins meditation on the highest Self embodied in the Vaisvanara fire. Moreover the Vågasaneyins read of him, viz. the Vaisvånara, as man or person, viz. in the passage 'That Agni Vaisvanara is the person' (Sa. Brâ. X, 6, 1, 11). The intestinal fire by itself cannot be called a person ; unconditioned personality belongs to the highest Self only. Compare the thousandheaded person' (Ri. Samh.), and the Person is all this' (Sve. Up. I, 3, 15).
28. For the same reasons not the divinity and the element.
For the reasons stated Vaisvånara can be neither the deity Fire, nor the elemental fire which holds the third place among the gross elements.
29. Gaimini thinks that there is no objection to (the word 'Agni') directly (denoting the highest Self).
So far it has been maintained that the word 'Agni,' which stands in co-ordination with the term Vaisvanara,' denotes the highest Self in so far as qualified by the intestinal fire constituting its body; and that hence the text under discussion enjoins meditation on the highest Self. Gaimini, on the other hand, is of opinion that there is no reasonable objection to the term 'Agni,' no less than the term Vaisvanara,' being taken directly to denote the highest Self. That is to say-in the same way as the term
Vaisvanara,' although a common term, yet when qualified by attributes especially belonging to the highest Self is known to denote the latter only as possessing the quality of ruling all men ; so the word 'Agni' also when appearing in connexion with special attributes belonging to the highest Self denotes that Self only. For any quality on the ground of which 'Agni' may be etymologically explained to de. note ordinary fire-as when e. g. we explain 'agni' as he who'agre nayati'-may also, in its highest non-conditioned degree, be ascribed to the supreme Self. Another difficulty
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