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I ADHYÂYA, 3 PÂDA, 30.
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From all this it follows that the theory according to which the individual gods and so on originate from the eternal. words is unobjectionable.
29. And from this very reason there follows the eternity of the Veda.
As the eternity of the Veda is founded on the absence of the remembrance of an agent only, a doubt with regard to it had been raised owing to the doctrine that the gods and other individuals have sprung from it. That doubt has been refuted in the preceding Sætra.-The present Sûtra now confirms the, already established, eternity of the Veda. The eternity of the word of the Veda has to be assumed for this very reason, that the world with its definite (eternal) species, such as gods and so on, originates from it.-A mantra also (By means of the sacrifice they followed the trace of speech; they found it dwelling in the rishis,' Rig-veda Samh. X, 71, 3) shows that the speech found (by the rishis) was permanent.-On this point Vedavyasa also speaks as follows: "Formerly the great rishis, being allowed to do so by Svayambhů, obtained, through their penance, the Vedas together with the itihâsas, which had been hidden at the end of the yuga.'
30. And on account of the equality of names and forms there is no contradiction (to the eternity of the word of the Veda) in the renovation (of the world); as is seen from Sruti and Smriti.
If-the pûrvapakshin resumes--the individual gods and so on did, like the individual animals, originate and pass away in an unbroken succession so that there would be no break of the course of practical existence including denominations, : things denominated and agents denominating; the connexion (between word and thing) would be eternal, and the objection as to a contradiction with reference to the word (raised in Sūtra 27) would thereby be refuted. But if, as Sruti and Smriti declare, the whole threefold
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