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588
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
to king Soma (the moon) originating from sraddhå when offered, also shows that sraddhå must mean water.
6. 'On account of this not being stated by Scripture'; not so, on account of those who perform sacrifices and so on being understood.
But, a further objection is raised, in the whole section under discussion no mention at all is made of the soul; the section cannot therefore prove that the soul moves, enveloped by water. The text speaks only of different forms of water-sraddha and the rest.—This, the Satra points out, is not so, on account of those who perform sacrifices being understood. For further on in the same chapter it is said, that those who, while destitute of the knowledge of Brahman, practise sacrifices, useful works and alms, reach the heavenly world and become there of the essence of the moon (somaråganah); whence, on the results of their good works being exhausted, they return again and enter on a new embryonic state (Kh. Up. V, 10). Now in the preceding section (V, ) it is said that they offer sraddha in the heavenly world, and that from that oblation there arises the king Soma—an account which clearly refers to the same process as the one described in V, 10. We herefrom infer that what is meant in V, 9 is that that being which was distinguished by a body of sraddha, becomes a being distinguished by a body of the nature of the moon. The word body denotes that the nature of which it is to be the attribute of a soul, and thus extends in its connotation up to the soul. The meaning of the section therefore is that it is the soul which moves enveloped by water and the other rudimentary elements. But the phrase 'him the gods eat' (V, 10, 4) shows that the king Soma cannot be the soul, for that cannot be eaten |--To this the next Satra replies.
7. Or it is metaphorical, on account of their not knowing the Self. For thus Scripture declares.
He who performs sacrifices, and so on, and thus does not know the Self, is here below and in yonder world a mere
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