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VEDÂNTA-SÛTRAS.
i.e. higher than the effected world of Brahma. This is known from the texts declaring that he who proceeds on the path of light reaches immortality and does not return; and is further confirmed by the text, 'They all, reaching the highest immortality, become free in the world of Brahman (Brahma) at the time of the great end' (Mu. Up. III, 2,6).
10. And on account of Smriti.
This follows from Smriti also, which declares 'when the pralaya has come and the end of the Highest, they all together with Brahman enter the highest place.'-For all these reasons Bådari holds that the troop of the conducting deities, beginning with Light, leads the souls of those only who meditate on the effected Brahman, i.e. Hiranyagarbha.
11. The Highest, Gaimini thinks; on account of primariness of meaning.
The teacher Gaimini is of opinion that those deities lead on the souls of those only who meditate on the highest Brahman. For in the text 'a person not human leads them to Brahman' the word Brahman is naturally taken in its primary sense (i.e. the highest Brahman); the secondary sense (i.e. the effected Brahman) can be admitted only if there are other valid reasons to refer the passage to the effected Brahman. And the alleged impossibility of the soul's going is no such valid reason; for although Brahman no doubt is present everywhere, Scripture declares that the soul of the wise frees itself from Nescience only on having gone to some particular place. That the origination of true knowledge depends on certain conditions of caste, asrama, religious duty, purity of conduct, time, place, and so on, follows from certain scriptural texts, as e.g. 'Brahmanas desire to know him through the study of the Veda' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 22); in the same way it follows from the text declaring the soul's going to Brahman that the final realisation of that highest knowledge which implies the cessation of all Nescience depends on
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