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586
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
the form of a man, whence we conclude that water only invests the soul during its wanderings; how then can it be held that the soul moves invested by the rudiments of all elements ?—To this question the next Satra replies.
2. But on account of (water) consisting of the three elements; on account of predominance.
Water alone could not produce a new body; for the text Kh. Up. VI, 3, 4, 'Each of these he made tripartite,' shows that all the elements were made tripartite to the end of producing bodies. That the text under discussion mentions water only, is due to the predominance of water; and that among the elements giving rise to a new body water predominates, we infer from the fact that blood and the other humours are the predominating element in the body.
3. And on account of the going of the prânas.
That the soul goes embedded in the subtle rudiments of the elements follows therefrom also that when passing out of the old body it is said to be followed by the pranas,
when he thus passes out, the chief prâna follows after him,' &c. (Bri. Up. V, 4, 2). Compare also Smriti: 'It draws to itself the organs of sense, with the mind for the sixth. When the Ruler (soul) obtains a new body, and passes out of another, he takes with him those organs and then moves on, as the wind takes the odours from their abodes (the flowers)' (Bha. Gi. XV, 8). But the pranas cannot move without a substrate, and hence we must admit that the rudiments of the elements---which are their substrate--are also moving.
4. If it be said (that it is not so) on account of scriptural statement as to going to Agni and the rest; we say no, on account of the secondary nature (of the statement).
But the text, when the speech of the dead person enters into fire,' &c. (Bri. Up. III, 2, 13), declares that when a person dies his organs go into fire, and so on ; they cannot therefore accompany the soul. Hence the text which
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