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I ADHYAYA, 4 PADA; 10.
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and other gods, is the abode of nectar brought about by sacrificial works to be learned from the Rik and the other Vedas; and further makes him to rise and to set. And between these two conditions there is no contradiction. This is declared in the Madhuvidya (Kh. Up. III), from
The sun is indeed the honey of the Devas,' down to when from thence he has risen upwards he neither rises nor sets ; being one he stands in the centre'-'one' here means of one nature.'-The conclusion therefore is that the Svetasvatara mantra under discussion refers to Prakriti as having her Self in Brahman, not to the Prakriti assumed by the Sankhyas.
Others, however, are of opinion that the one agå of which the mantra speaks has for its characteristics light, water, and earth. To them we address the following ques. tions. Do you mean that by what the text speaks of as an aga, consisting of fire, water, and earth, we have to understand those three elements only; or Brahman in the form of those three elements; or some power or principle which is the cause of the three elements? The first alternative is in conflict with the circumstance that, while fire, water, and earth are several things, the text explicitly refers to one agà. Nor may it be urged that fire, water, and earth, although several, become one, by being made tripartite (Kh. Up. VI, 3, 3); for this making them tripartite, does not take away their being several; the text clearly showing that each several element becomes tripartite, 'Let me make each of these three divine beings tripartite.'-The second alternative again divides itself into two alternatives. Is the one agà Brahman in so far as having passed over into fire, water, and earth ; or Brahman in so far as abiding within itself and not passing over into effects? The former alternative is excluded by the consideration that it does not remove plurality (which cannot be reconciled with the one agà). The second alternative is contradicted by the text calling that agà red, white, and black; and moreover Brahman viewed as abiding within itself cannot be characterised by fire, water, and earth. On the third alternative it has to be assumed that the text denotes by the [48]
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