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VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
itself is produced from fire, water, and earth, only after these elements have been rendered tripartite; and Smriti says that Brahmå himself originated in that egg, 'in that egg there originated Brahma, the grandfather of all the worlds. As thus the action of rendering tripartite can belong to the highest Brahman only, the differentiation of names and forms, which belongs to the same agent, also is Brahman's only.-But how then does the clause with that living-soul-self' fit in 2–The co-ordination with that soul, with the Self,' shows that the term 'soul' here denotes the highest Brahman as having the soul for its body; just as in the clauses that fire thought'; 'it sent forth water'; water thought,' and so on, what is meant each time is Brahman having fire, water, and so on, for its body. The work of differentiating names and forms thus belongs to the highest Brahman which has for its body Hiranyagarbha, who represents the soul in its aggregate form. On this view the first person (in 'let me differentiate') and the agency (conveyed by the form of 'pravisya ') may, without any difficulty, be taken in their primary literal senses; and the common agency, implied in the connexion of pravisya and vyakaravani, is accounted for. The view here set forth as to the relation of Brahman and Hiraxyagarbha also explains how the accounts of Hiranyagarbha's (Brahma's) creative activity can say that he differentiated names and forms.
The whole passus beginning that divinity thought,' there fore has the following meaning—Having entered into those three beings, viz. Fire, Water, and Earth, with my Self which is qualified by the collective soul (as constituting its body), let me differentiate names and forms, i.e. let me produce gods and all the other kinds of individual beings, and give them names; and to that end, since fire, water, and earth have not yet mutually combined, and hence are incapable of giving rise to particular things, let me make each of them tripartite, and thus fit them for creation.'The settled conclusion then is, that the differentiation of names and forms is the work of the highest Brahman only.
But, an objection is raised, the fact that the differentia
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