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Updated: June 2, 2025
The Vedanta-texts, on the other hand, give instruction on a subject which transcends the sphere of all the other means of knowledge, viz. the highest Person who is free from all shadow even of imperfection, and a treasure-house as it were of all exalted qualities in their highest state of perfection; on sacrifices, gifts, oblations, which are helpful towards the propitiation of that Person; on praise, worship, and meditation, which directly propitiate him; and on the rewards which he, thus propitiated, bestows, viz. temporal happiness and final Release.
Such acts as the Jyotishtoma sacrifice and the knowledge inculcated in the Vedanta-texts are alike of the nature of conciliation of the Supreme Person; through whom thus conciliated man obtains all that is beneficial to him, viz. religious duty, wealth, pleasure, and final Release. This has been shown under III, 2, 38.
For those finally who maintain absolute difference, the doctrine of Brahman being the Self of all has no meaning whatsoever for things absolutely different can in no way be one and this implies the abandonment of all Vedanta-texts together.
Now, as these Rishis did not see truth in the way of Kapila, we conclude that Kapila's view, which contradicts Scripture, is founded on error, and cannot therefore be used to modify the sense of the Vedanta-texts. Here finishes the adhikarana treating of 'Smriti. Hereby the Yoga is refuted. By the above refutation of Kapila's Smriti the Yoga-smriti also is refuted.
The Purvapakshin denies this qualification in the case of gods and other beings, on the ground of absence of capability. We have indeed proved above that the Vedanta-texts may intimate accomplished things, and hence are an authoritative means for the cognition of Brahman; but we do not meet with any Vedanta-text, the purport of which is to teach that the devas, and so on, possess bodies.
We thus see that the theory of words having a meaning only in relation to things to be done is baseless. The Vedanta-texts tell us about Brahman, which is an accomplished entity, and about meditation on Brahman as having an unlimited result, and hence it behoves us to undertake an enquiry into Brahman so as fully to ascertain its nature.
Hereby, i.e. by the whole array of arguments set forth in the four padas of the first adhyaya; all those particular passages of the Vedanta-texts which give instruction as to the cause of the world, are explained as meaning to set forth a Brahman all-wise, all-powerful, different in nature from all beings intelligent and non-intelligent.
The teaching of the Vedanta-texts is not inappropriate, since there are instances of good and bad qualities being separate in the case of one thing connected with two different states. The 'but' in the Sutra indicates the impossibility of Brahman being connected with even a shadow of what is evil. The meaning is as follows.
We meet in the Vedanta-texts with certain stories such as 'Pratardana the son of Divodasa came to the beloved abode of Indra, &c., and similar ones. The question here arises whether the stories are merely meant to be recited at the Asvamedha sacrifice or to convey knowledge of a special kind.
The Vedanta-texts, he says, do not teach that creation proceeds from one and the same agent only, and you therefore have no right to hold that Brahman is the sole cause of the world. Up. Up. Up. As the Vedanta-texts are thus not consequent in their statements regarding the creator, we cannot conclude from them that Brahman is the sole cause of the world.
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