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626
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
wealth' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 24); and 'For he alone causes delight' (Taitt. Up. II, 7).—Next a primâ facie view is stated.
39. For the same reasons Gaimini (thinks it to be) religious action.
For the same reasons, viz. possibility and scriptural declaration, the teacher Gaimini thinks that religious works, viz. sacrifices, gists, offerings, and meditation, of themselves bring about their rewards. For we observe that in ordinary life actions such as ploughing and the like, and charitable gifts and so on, bring about their own reward, directly or indirectly. And although Vedic works do not bring about their rewards immediately, they may do so mediately, viz. by means of the so-called aparva. This follows also from the form of the Vedic injunctions, such as 'He who is desirous of the heavenly world is to sacrifice.' As such injunctions enjoin sacrifices as the means of bringing about the object desired to be realised, viz. the heavenly world and the like, there is no other way left than to assume that the result (which is seen not to spring directly from the sacrifice) is accomplished by the mediation of the apdrva.
40. But the former, Bådarayana (thinks), on account of the designation (of deities) as the cause,
The reverend Badarayana maintains the previously declared awarding of rewards by the Supreme Person since the scriptural texts referring to the different sacrifices declare that the deities only, Agni, Vayu, and so on, who are propitiated by the sacrifices—which are nothing else but means to propitiate deities—are the cause of the rewards attached to the sacrifices. Compare texts such as 'Let him who is desirous of prosperity offer a white animal to Väyu. For Väyu is the swiftest god. The man thus approaches Vayu with his proper share, and Vayu leads him to prosperity. And the whole instruction which the texts give, as to the means by which men desirous of certain results are to effect those results, is required on account of the injunctions only, and hence it cannot be doubted that
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