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VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
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desire, together with the all-knowing Brahman'(Taitt. Up. II, 1, 1).—The conclusion thus is that we have to shape our ideas as to the powers of the released soul in accordance with what the texts say as to the Lord only possessing the power of ruling and controlling the entire world, and that hence the latter power cannot be attributed to the soul.But if the powers of the released soul altogether depend on the Lord, it may happen that He, being independent in all his doings, may will the released soul to return into the Samsára.–Of this doubt the next Satra disposes.
22. Non-return, according to Scripture ; nonreturn, according to Scripture.
We know from Scripture that there is a Supreme Person whose nature is absolute bliss and goodness; who is fundamentally antagonistic to all evil; who is the cause of the origination, sustentation, and dissolution of the world ; who differs in nature from all other beings, who is all-knowing, who by his mere thought and will accomplishes all his purposes ; who is an ocean of kindness as it were for all who depend on him; who is all-merciful; who is immeasurably raised above all possibility of any one being equal or superior to him ; whose name is the highest Brahman. And with equal certainty we know from Scripture that this Supreme Lord, when pleased by the faithful worship of his Devotees which worship consists in daily repeated meditation on Him, assisted by the performance of all the practices prescribed for each caste and asrama-frees them from the influence of Nescience which consists of karman accumulated in the infinite progress of time and hence hard to overcome; allows them to attain to that supreme bliss which consists in the direct intuition of His own true nature : and after that does not tum them back into the miseries of Samsara. The text distinctly teaching this is He who behaves thus all his life through reaches the world of Brahman and does not return' (Kh. Up. VIII, 15). And the Lord himself de clares 'Having obtained me great-souled men do not come into rebirth, the fleeting abode of misery; for they have
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