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To this the Sutra replies, 'And on account of its being in everyway unproved' the theory of general Nothingness which you hold cannot stand. Do you hold that everything is being or non-being, or anything else? On none of these views the Nothingness maintained by you can be established.
This second alternative interpretation of the Sutra is preferred by most competent persons. The Vrittikara, e.g. says, 'That Brahman which the clause "All this is Brahman" declares to be the Self of all is the Lord. The qualities about to be stated can belong to the highest Self only. 'Made of mind, having breath for its body, &c. 'Made of mind' means to be apprehended by a purified mind only.
The question here is whether Brahman is to be reached on the path of the gods by those only who take their stand on those meditations which, like the Upakosala-vidya, describe that path, or by all who practise any of the meditations on Brahman. Up. V, 10, 1; Bri. Up. This the Sutra negatives.
As the 'subject of the qualities, i.e. Brahman is the same in all meditations, the qualities which do not exist apart from their subject, viz. bliss, and so on, are to be comprised in all meditations. Up. This the next Sutra negatives.
Toward the end of the particular sutra which he advised her to read and recite, Buddha says: "Let not one's voice cease, but ten times complete the thought, and repeat the formula, of the adoration of Amida." "This practice," adds the Japanese exegete and historian, "is the most excellent of all."
This is proved by all those texts which exhibit the soul and Brahman in co-ordination 'Thou art that' 'this Self is Brahman'; 'In that all this has its Self'; 'All this in truth is Brahman'; and by other texts, such as 'He who dwells within the Self, whom the Self does not know, of whom the Self is the body, &c.; and 'He who abides within, the ruler of creatures, he is thy Self; as explained by us under Sutra I, 4, 22.
To this the Sutra replies 'and on account of the scriptural word. The text says distinctly that speech itself, not merely the function of speech, becomes one with the mind. And when the function of speech comes to an end, there is no other means of knowledge to assure us that the function only has come to an end and that the organ itself continues to have an independent existence.
The word 'jijnasa' is a desiderative formation meaning 'desire to know. And as in the case of any desire the desired object is the chief thing, the Sutra means to enjoin knowledge which is the object of the desire of knowledge. This is as follows.
Of this prima facie view the Sutra disposes by saying 'Not even from place, such as earth, soul, &c., is there possible for the highest Self a shadow even of imperfection; since everywhere in Scripture as well as Smriti Brahman is described as having characteristics of a double kind; viz. on the one hand freedom from all imperfections, and on the other possession of all blessed qualities. Up.
There is an option between them, since they are not in mutual dependence, and since the sleeping soul cannot at the same time be in several places! To this the Sutra replies the absence of dreams, i.e. deep sleep takes place in the veins, in the pericardium, and in the highest Self together; since these three are declared by Scripture.