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364
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
but one God only, following his own will, drinks her submitting to him. By his own thought and work the mighty God strongly enjoys her, who is common to all, the milkgiver, who is pressed by the sacrifices. The Non-evolved when being counted by twenty-four is called the Evolved.' This passage evidently describes the nature of Prakriti, and so on, and the same Upanishad also teaches the Supreme Person who constitutes the Self of Prakriti, and so on. 'Him they call the twenty-sixth or also the twenty-seventh ; as the Person devoid of all qualities of the Sårkhyas he is known by the followers of the Atharvan"'--Other followers of the Atharvan read in their text that there are sixteen originating principles (prakriti) and eight effected things (vikära ; Garbha Up. 3).-The Svetåsvataras again set forth the nature of Prakriti, the soul and the Lord as follows. The Lord supports all this together, the Perishable and the Imperishable, the Evolved and the Unevolved: the other one is in bondage, since he is an enjoyer; but having known the God he is free from all fetters. There are two unborn ones, the one knowing and a Lord, the other without knowledge and lordly power; there is the one unborn female on whom the enjoyment of all enjoyers depends ; and there is the infinite Self appearing in all shapes, but itself inactive. When a man finds out these three, that is Brahman. The Perishable is the Pradhana, the Immortal and Imperishable is Hara; the one God rules the Perishable and the Self. From meditation on him, from union with him, from becoming one with him there is in the end cessation of all Maya' (Svet. Up. I, 8-10). And The sacred verses, the offerings, the sacrifices, the vows, the past, the future, and all that the Vedas declare- from that the Ruler of Maya creates all this; and in this the other one is bound up through Måyå. Know then Prakriti to be Maya and the great Lord the ruler of Måyå; with his members this
1 These quotations are from the Kulika-Upanishad (transl. by Deussen, Seventy Upanishads, p. 638 ff.) The translation as given above follows the readings adopted by Râmânuga and explained in the Sruta-Prakasika.
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