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I ADHYAYA, 4 PÂDA, 9.
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text that this aga' has Brahman for her cause. The Mahanarayana-Upanishad (of the Taittiriyas) at first refers to Brahman abiding in the hollow of the heart as the object of meditation. "Smaller than the small, greater than the great, the Self placed in the hollow of this creature'; next declares that all the worlds and Brahmå and the other gods originated from that Self; and then says that there sprung from it also this agå which is the cause of all 'The one agà (goat), red, white and black, which gives birth to numerous offspring of the same shape, one aga (he-goat) loves and lies by her; another one forsakes her after having enjoyed her.' The subject-matter of the entire section evidently is to give instruction as to the whole aggregate of things other than Brahman originating from Brahman and thus having its Self in it; hence we conclude that also the agå which gives birth to manifold creatures like her, and is enjoyed by the soul controlled by karman, while she is abandoned by the soul possessing true knowledge is, no less than vital airs, seas, mountains, &c., a creature of Brahman, and hence has its Self in Brahman. We then apply to the interpretation of the Svetåsvatara-text the meaning of the analogous Mahanaråyana-text, as determined by the complementary passages, and thus arrive at the conclusion that the agå in the former text also is a being having its Self in Brahman.
That this is so, moreover, appears from the Svetåsvatara itself. For in the early part of that Upanishad, we have after the introductory question, 'Is Brahman the cause?' the passage 'The sages devoted to meditation and concentration have seen the person whose Self is the divinity, hidden in its own qualities' (I, 1, 3); which evidently refers to the aga as being of the nature of a power of the highest Brahman. And as further on also (viz. in the passages 'From that the Mayin creates all this, and in this the other is bound up through Mâyâ'; Know then Prakriti to be Mâya and the Great Lord the ruler of Mâya'; and 'he who rules every place of birth,' V, 9-11) the very same being is referred to, there remains not even a shadow of proof for the assertion that the mantra under discussion
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