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VEDÂNTA-SÜTRAS.
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Such construction of injunctions on the basis of texts of arthavada character is seen in other places also; the matter is discussed in PQ. Mî. Satras III, 5, 21.—The result of the meditative performance follows from the passage of these (altars made of mind, and so on) each is as great as that former one (i.e. the altar built of bricks) '--for this implies that the same result which the brick-altar accomplishes through the sacrifice of which it forms an element is also attained through the altars made of mind, and so on, through the meditations of which they form parts. The next Satra disposes of the argumentation that, as this formal transfer of the result of the brick-altar to the altars built of mind, and so on, shows the latter to possess the same virtues as the former, we are bound to conclude that they also form constituent elements of an actual (not merely meditative) performance.
49. Not so, on account of this being observed on account of similarity also; as in the case of Death ; for (the person in yonder orb) does not occupy the worlds (of Death).
From a transfer or assimilation of this kind it does not necessarily follow that things of different operation are equal, and that hence those altars of mind, and so on, must connect themselves with an actual outward performance. For it is observed that such assimilation rests sometimes on a special point of resemblance only; so in the text,
The person in yonder orb is Death indeed,'—where the feature of resemblance is the destroying power of the two; for the person within yonder orb does certainly not occupy the same worlds, i.e. the same place as Death. Analogously, in the case under discussion, the fact that the altars made of mind are treated as, in a certain respect, equivalent to the altar built of bricks, does not authorise us to connect those altars with the sacrificial performance to which the altar of bricks belongs. When the text says that the altar made of mind is as great as the altar of bricks, this only means that the same result which is
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