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VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
on his limbs ; for that passage states a separate result, he eats food in all worlds,' &c. Nor does this destroy the unity of the whole section. The case is analogous to that of the meditation on plenitude '(bhůman; Kh. Up. VII, 23). There, in the beginning, separate meditations are enjoined on name, and so on, with special results of their own; and after that a meditation is enjoined on bhûman, with a result of its own, "He becomes a Self-ruler,' &c. The entire section really refers to the meditation on bhäman; but all the same there are admitted subordinate meditations on name, and so on, and a special result for each.—These views are set aside by the Satra, 'There is pre-eminence of plenitude,' i.e. there is reason to assume that Vaisvånara in his fulness, i. e. in his collective aspect, is meant; since we apprehend unity of the entire section. From the beginning of the section it is manifest that what the Rishis desire to know is the Vaisvānara Self; it is that Self which Asvapati expounds to them as having the Universe for his body, and in agreement therewith the last clause of his teaching intimates that the intuition of Brahman (which is none other than the Vaisvânara Self-which is there characterised as the food of all worlds, all beings, all Selfs -is the fruit of the meditation on Vaisvānara. This summing up proves the whole section to deal with the same subject. And on the basis of this knowledge we determine that what the text says as to meditations on the separate members of the Vaisvånara Self and their special results is merely of the nature of explanatory comment (anuvada) on parts of the meditation on the collective Self.—This decision is arrived at as in the case of the sacrifice. For to the injunction of certain sacrifices such as 'Let a man, on the birth of a son, offer a cake on twelve potsherds to Vaisvanara'—the text similarly adds remarks on parts of the oblation, there is an oblation on eight potsherds, and so on.-The meditation therefore has to be performed on the entire Vaisvânara Self only, not on its parts. This, moreover, Scripture itself intimates, in so far, namely, as declaring the evil consequences of meditation on parts of the Self only, 'your head would have
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