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302
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
duties may be undertaken, the next paragraphs then teach that bliss constitutes the nature of the individual soul, previously called Prâna, and finally that the Bhūman, i.e. the supreme fulness of such bliss, is the proper object of inquiry. The final purport of the teaching, therefore, is that the true nature of the individual soul, freed from Nescience, is abundant bliss—a conclusion which perfectly agrees with the initial statement that he who knows the Self passes beyond sorrow. That being, therefore, which has the attribute of being 'bhūman,' is the individual Self. This being so, it is also intelligible why, further on, when the text describes the glory and power of the individual Self, it uses the term 'I'; for 'I' denotes just the individual Self: 'I am below, I am above, &c., I am all this' (VII, 25, 1). This conclusion having been settled, all remaining clauses must be explained so as to agree with it.
This primâ facie view is set aside by the Sutra. The being characterised in the text as 'bhuman' is not the individual Self, but the highest Self, since instruction is given about the bhuman in addition to 'serenity' (samprasada). "Samprasada' denotes the individual soul, as we know from the following text, Now that “serenity," having risen from out this body, and having reached the highest light, appears in its true form' (Kh. Up. VIII, 3, 4). Now in the text under discussion instruction is given about a being called 'the True,' and possessing the attribute of bhuman,' as being something additional to the individual soul; and this being called the True' is none other than the highest Brahman. Just as in the series of beings beginning with name and ending with breath, each successive being is mentioned in addition to the preceding one-wherefrom we conclude that it is something really different from what precedes ; so that being also which is called the True,' and which is mentioned in addition to the individual Self called Prana, is something different from the individual Self, and this being called 'the True' is the same as the Bhūman; in other words, the text teaches that the Bhuman is the highest Brahman called 'the True.' This the Vrittikára also declares : ‘But the Bhuman only. The Bhaman
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