________________
THIRD ADHYÅYA.
FIRST PÅDA. 1. In obtaining another of that, it goes enveloped, (as appears) from question and explanation.
That the Vedanta-texts establish as the proper object of meditation, on the part of all men desirous of Release, the highest Brahman, which is the only cause of the entire world, which is not touched by even a shadow of imperfection, which is an ocean, as it were, of supremely exalted qualities, and which totally differs in nature from all other beings—this is the point proved in the two previous adhyayas; there being given at the same time arguments to disprove the objections raised against the Vedanta doctrine on the basis of Smriti and reasoning, to refute the views held by other schools, to show that the different Vedanta-texts do not contradict each other, and to prove that the Self is the object of activities (enjoined in injunctions of meditation, and so on). In short, those two adhyâyas have set forth the essential nature of Brahman. The subsequent part of the work now makes it its task to enquire into the mode of attaining to Brahman, together with the means of attainment. The third adhyâya is concerned with an enquiry into meditation-which is the means of attaining to Brahman; and as the motive for entering on such meditation is supplied by the absence of all desire for what is other than the thing to be obtained, and by the desire for that thing, the points first to be enquired into are the imperfections of the individual soulmoving about in the different worlds, whether waking or dreaming or merged in dreamless sleep, or in the state of swoon; and those blessed characteristics by which Brahman is raised above all these imperfections. These are the topics of the first and second padas of the adhyaya.
The first question to be considered is whether the soul,
Digitized by
Digitized by Google
