Book Title: Satapatha Bramhana Part 05
Author(s): Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford

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Page 1895
________________ III ADHYAYA, 4 PÅDA, 2. 687 therefore, stands in a complementary relation to sacrificial works, in so far as it imparts to the acting Self a certain mystic purification; and the texts which declare special results of knowledge, therefore, must be taken as mere arthavadas. As in the case of other things; so Gaimini thinks,' i.e. as Gaimini holds that in the case of substances, qualities, and so on, the scriptural declaration of results is of the nature of arthavåda.-But it has been shown before that the Vedanta-texts represent as the object to be attained, by those desirous of Release, on the basis of the knowledge imparted by them, something different from the individual Self engaged in action; cp. on this point Sû. I, I, 15; 1, 3, 5; 1, 2, 3 ; 1, 3, 18. And Sa. II, 1, 22 and others have refuted the view that Brahman is to be considered as non-different from the personal soul, because in texts such as 'thou art that ' it is exhibited in co-ordination with the latter. And other Satras have proved that Brahman must, on the basis of numerous scriptural texts, be recognised as the inner Self of all things material and immaterial. How then can it be said that the Vedanta-texts merely mean to give instruction as to the true nature of the active individual soul, and that hence all meditation is merely subservient to sacrificial works ?-On the strength of numerous inferential marks, the Parva pakshin replies, which prove that in the Vedantatexts all meditation is really viewed as subordinate to knowledge, and of the declarations of co-ordination of Brahman and the individual soul (which must be taken to imply that the two are essentially of the same nature), we cannot help forming the conclusion that the real purport of the Vedanta-texts is to tell us of the true nature of the individual soul in so far as different from its body. But, again it is objected, the agent is connected no less with ordinary worldly works than with works enjoined by the Veda, and hence is not invariably connected with sacrifices (i.e. works of the latter type); it cannot, therefore, be maintained that meditations on the part of the agent necessarily connect themselves with sacrifices in so far as they effect a purification of the sacrificer's mind —There Digitized by Digitized by Google

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