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II ADHYAYA, I PÂDA, 15.
453
which is due to the existence of other souls).—But mere substantial limitation, as meaning the absence of nonlimitation of any kind, by itself proves that Brahman is not infinite 1-Well, then you yourself are in no better case; for you admit that Brahman is something different from avidya. From this admission it follows that Brahman also is something different,' and thus all the disadvantages connected with the view of difference cling to your theory as well. If on the other hand it should not be allowed that Brahman differs in nature from avidya, then Brahman's nature itself is constituted by avidyâ, and the text defining Brahman as 'the True, knowledge, infinite' is contrary to sense. --If the reality of difference' is not admitted, then there is no longer any distinction between the proofs and the mutual objections set forth by the advocates of different theories, and we are landed in gerreral confusion. The proof of infinity, we further remark, rests altogether on the absence of limitation of space and time, not on absence of substantial limitation; absence of such limitation is something very much akin to the "horn of a hare' and is perceived nowhere. On the view of difference, on the other hand, the whole world, as constituting Brahman's body, is its mode, and Brahman is thus limited neither through itself nor through other things. We thus arrive at the conclusion that, as effects are real in so far as different from their cause, the effect of Brahman, i.e. the entire world, is different from Brahman.
Against this view the Satra now declares itself as follows.—The non-difference of the world from Brahman, the highest cause, follows from what begins with the word arambhana'-which proves such non-difference ; 'what begins with the word arambhana' means those clauses at the head of which that word is met with, viz. 'vakarambhanam vikaro nåmadheyam mrittikety eva satyam';
Being only this was in the beginning, one only, without a second'; 'it thought, may I be many, may I grow forth; it sent forth fire'; 'having entered with this living Self'; "In the True, my son, all these creatures have their root, in the True they dwell, in the True they rest'; 'In that all
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