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The conclusion, therefore, is that those meditations are not restricted to the sacrifices, subordinate members of which serve as their 'bases. This terminates the adhikarana of 'like the bases. The benefit to man results from thence, on account of scriptural statement; thus Badarayana thinks.
That is to say, the view that those are led who meditate on the effected Brahman cannot be upheld; nor is there an exclusive rule that those only should be led on who meditate on the highest Brahman. Souls of both these kinds are led on to Brahman. Why so? Because there is a defect in both cases, i. e. in both the views rejected by Badarayana. Up. Up.
It is for these reasons that Jaimini holds that the deities speeding the soul on its way lead on him only who has the highest Brahman for the object of his meditation. Now the Reverend Badarayana declares his own view, which constitutes the final conclusion in this matter.
Those not depending on symbols he leads, thus Badarayana thinks; there being a defect in both cases; and he whose thought is that. Badarayana is of opinion that the deities lead those not depending on symbols, i.e. all meditating devotees other than those depending on symbols.
Why, therefore, should not the same hold good in the case of the Bhagavata doctrine? Not so, we reply. In the Mahabharata also Badarayana applies to the Sankhya and other doctrines the same style of reasoning as in the Sutras. The question, asked in the passage quoted, means 'Do the Sankhya, the Yoga, the Pasupata, and the Pankaratra set forth one and the same reality, or different ones?
Such meditation is possible in the case of higher beings also Badarayana thinks; on account of the possibility of want and capacity on their part also.
A further point now to be investigated is whether that advantage to the meditating devotee, which is held to accrue to him from the meditation, results from the meditation directly, or from works of which the meditations are subordinate members. The Reverend Badarayana holds the former view. The benefit to man results from thence, i.e. from the meditation, because Scripture declares this to be so.
The reverend Badarayana maintains the previously declared awarding of rewards by the Supreme Person since the scriptural texts referring to the different sacrifices declare that the deities only, Agni, Vayu, and so on, who are propitiated by the sacrifices which are nothing else but means to propitiate deities are the cause of the rewards attached to the sacrifices.
As has been said, 'By the application of knowledge on the part of the Sankhya, and of works on the part of the Yogins. And in the Bhishmaparvan we read, 'By Brahmanas, Kshattriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras, Madhava is to be honoured, served and worshipped he who was proclaimed by Sankarshana in agreement with the Satvata law. How then could these utterances of Badarayana, the foremost among all those who understand the teaching of the Veda, be reconciled with the view that in the Sutras he maintains the non- authoritativeness of the Satvata doctrine, the purport of which is to teach the worship of, and meditation on, Vasudeva, who is none other than the highest Brahman known from the Vedanta-texts?
It is ascribed to Badarayana, sometimes called Vyasa, though this last is really a generic name denoting "a collector." The word "sutra" denotes literally "threads," and is used by Brahmanic writers for short, dry sentences, brief expositions. The second great division of Hindu sacred literature is the "Puranas," the last and most modern of the books of Hinduism.
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