________________
I ADHYÂYA, 3 PÂDA, 14.
175
the nature of the small ether, according as the individual soul or the highest Self is understood by the Lord of the city.
The purvapakshin maintains that by the small ether we have to understand the elemental ether, since the latter meaning is the conventional one of the word åkåsa. The elemental ether is here called small with reference to its small abode (the heart). In the passage, 'As large as this ether is, so large is that ether within the heart,' it is represented as constituting at the same time the two terms of a comparison, because it is possible to make a distinction between the outer and the inner ether"; and it is said that
heaven and earth are contained within it,' because the whole ether, in so far as it is space, is one 2.-Or else, the purvapakshin continues, the 'small one' may be taken to mean the individual soul, on account of the term, the city of Brahman.' The body is here called the city of Brahman because it is the abode of the individual soul; for it is acquired by means of the actions of the soul. On this interpretation we must assume that the individual soul is here called Brahman metaphorically. The highest Brahman cannot be meant, because it is not connected with the body as its lord. The lord of the city, i.e. the soul, is represented as dwelling in one spot of the city (viz. the heart), just as a real king resides in one spot of his residence. Moreover, the mind (manas) constitutes the limiting adjunct of the individual soul, and the mind chiefly abides in the heart; hence the individual soul only can be spoken of as dwelling in the heart. Further, the individual soul only can be spoken of as small, since it is (elsewhere; Svet. Up. V, 8) compared in size to the point of a goad. That it is compared (in the passage under discussion) to the ether must be understood to intimate its non difference from Brahman.
So that the interpretation of the půrva pakshin cannot be objected to on the ground of its involving the comparison of a thing to itself.
* So that no objection can be raised on the ground that heaven and earth cannot be contained in the small ether of the heart.
Digitized by
Digized by Google
