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"THE REVEALED WORD."
1127
Answer - True ; there can be no Manifester' for non-eternal things also.
Question "How then are things like the Lamp regarded as * Manifesters'?"
Answer-No; in the cases cited, the Lamp is really the producer of the Jar, inasmuch as it produces the jar capable of bringing about its cognition ; and it is spoken of as Manifester', in order to indicate the exact nature of the producing' done by it.
Such a Manifester is not possible in the case of the Veda ; because its nature is such that its successive stages of production are not clearly per. ceptible.----(2418)
Even granting that there can be a Manifester of the eternal thing; such a 'Manifester ' does not differ from the 'maker':- This is what is shown in the following:
TEXT (2419).
THE VEDAS BEING PERCEPTIBLE IN THEIR CHARACTER, THERE IS APPEARANCE OF THEM WHEN THERE IS OPERATION OF THE MANIFESTER': IF TREY EXISTED EVEN BEFORE THAT OPERATION, THEN THEY SHOULD BE PERCEPTIBLE AT THAT TIME
ALSO.—(2419)
COMMENTARY Nothing can be regarded as Manifester unless it does something : otherwise there would be incongruities; and if it does something, then it becomes admitted that it is the producer ; because the production of a particular thing consists only in the coming about of another character.
• Being perceptible in their character - This qualifies the Vedas.
It might be argued that—"the Vedas were perceptible in their character even before; then how can they be said to appear through the operation of the Manifester ” ?
The answer to this is- If they existed even before, etc. etc. - Tēşām stands for the Vedas that are perceptible in their character. -(2419)
The same idea is further supported :
TEXT (2420). THE VEDA IS RECOGNISED AS CAPABLE OF BEING TREATED AS THE effect produced BY THE MANIFESTER ', - BECAUSE IT APPEARS ONLY WHEN THIS LATTER IS PRESENT ;-LIKE THE SPROUT
IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SEED.-(2420)
COMMENTARY.
The argument may be formulated as follows:- When one thing is found to appear when there is functioning of another thing, the former is capable