Book Title: Satapatha Bramhana Part 05
Author(s): Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford


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308
VEDÂNTA-SÛTRAS.
its object meditation on the highest Self in so far as having the individual Self for its body. As the highest Self has all beings for its body and thus is the Self of all, it is the Self of the individual soul also; and this the text declares in the passage beginning Now follows the instruction about the Self,' and ending Self is all this.' In order to prove this the text declares that everything originates from the highest Self which forms the Self of the individual soul also, viz. in the passage 'From the Self of him who sees this, perceives this, knows this, there springs breath,' &c.that means : breath and all other beings spring from the highest Self which abides within the Self of the meditating devotee as its inner ruler. Hence, the text means to intimate, meditation should be performed on the I, in order thus firmly to establish the cognition that the highest Self has the 'I,' i. e. the individual soul for its body.
It is thus an established conclusion that the bhūman is the highest Self. Here terminates the adhikarana of 'fulness.
9. The Imperishable (is Brahman), on account of its supporting that which is the end of ether.
The Vågasaneyins, in the chapter recording the questions asked by Gârgi, read as follows: 'He said, O Gårgî, the Brahmanas call that the Imperishable. It is neither coarse nor fine, neither short nor long, it is not red, not fluid, it is without a shadow,' &c. (Bri. Up. III, 8, 8). A doubt here arises whether that Imperishable be the Pradhana, or the individual soul, or the highest Self.—The Pradhana, it may be maintained in the first place. For we see that in passages such as 'higher than that which is higher than the Imperishable' the term 'Imperishable' actually denotes the Pradhana; and moreover the qualities enumerated, viz. not being either coarse or fine, &c., are characteristic of the Pradhana.
-But, an objection is raised, in texts such as 'That knowledge by which the Imperishable is apprehended'(Mu. Up. I, 1, 5), the word · Imperishable' is seen to denote the highest Brahman !-In cases, we reply, where the meaning of a word may be determined on the basis either of some
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