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IV ADHYAYA, 3 PÂDA, 13.
the soul's going to some particular place. The arguments founded on texts alleged to declare that the soul of the wise does not pass out of the body at all we have refuted above. The argument that the specification implied in the text which mentions Brahman-worlds clearly points to the effected Brahman, i. e. Hiranyagarbha, is equally invalid. For the compound 'the Brahman-world' is to be explained as 'the world which is Brahman'; just as according to the Pârva Mîmâmsâ the compound 'Nishâda-sthapati' denotes a sthapati who is a Nishâda (not a sthapati of the Nishâdas). A thing even which is known as one only may be designated by a plural form, as in a mantra one girdle is spoken of as 'the fetters of Aditi.' And as to the case under discussion, we know on the authority of Scripture, Smriti, Itihâsa, and Purâna, that the wonderful worlds springing from the mere will of a perfect and omnipresent being cannot be but infinite.
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12. And because Scripture declares it.
And Scripture moreover directly declares that the soul which has departed by way of the artery in the upper part of the head and passed along the path of the Gods reaches the highest Brahman: 'This serene being having risen from the body, having reached the highest light manifests itself in its own shape' (Kh. Up. VIII, 12, 3).—Against the contention that the text 'I enter the hall of Pragâpati, the house' shows that he who proceeds on the path beginning with light aims at the effected Brahman, the next Sutra argues.
13. And there is no aiming at the effected (Brahman).
The aim of the soul is not at Hiranyagarbha, but at the highest Brahman itself. For the complementary sentence 'I am the glorious among Brahmanas' shows that what the soul aims at is the condition of the universal Self, which has for its antecedent the putting off of all Nescience. For this appears from the preceding text, 'As a horse shakes his hairs and as the moon frees herself from the
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