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Updated: June 2, 2025
And the general result arrived at was that the Vedanta-texts help us to the knowledge of one being only, viz. Brahman, or the highest Person, or Narayana of whom it is shown that he cannot possibly be the object of the other means of knowledge, and whom the possession of an unlimited number of glorious qualities proves to differ totally from all other beings whatsoever.
Now, as men having only an imperfect knowledge of the Veda, and moreover naturally slow-minded, can hardly ascertain the sense of the Vedanta-texts without the assistance of such a Smriti, and as to be satisfied with that sense of the Vedanta which discloses itself on a mere superficial study of the text would imply the admission that the whole Sankhya Smriti, although composed by an able and trustworthy person, really is useless; we see ourselves driven to acknowledge that the doctrine of the Vedanta-texts cannot differ from the one established by the Sankhyas.
All Vedanta-texts teach such modification or change on Brahman's part. There is, e.g., the text in the Brihad-Aranyaka which declares that the whole world constitutes the body of Brahman and that Brahman is its Self.
As the outcome of all this, we sum up our view as follows. And the purpose for which we enter on the consideration of the Vedanta-texts is utterly to destroy what is the root of that error, i.e. Nescience, and thus to obtain a firm knowledge of the oneness of Brahman, whose nature is mere intelligence free, pure, eternal.
Hence a systematic discussion of the Vedanta-texts must he undertaken in order that their sense may be fully ascertained We agree. But you will have to admit that for the very same reason we must undertake a systematic enquiry into religious duty!
In the case of him who through 'hearing, 'reflection, and meditation, has dis-dispelled the entire imagination of plurality, the knowledge of the sense of Vedanta-texts puts an end to Nescience; and what we therefore require is a statement of the indispensable prerequisites of such 'hearing, 'reflection, and so on.
In all cases, therefore, sentences have a practical purpose; they determine either some form of activity or cessation from activity, or else some form of knowledge. No sentence, therefore, can have for its purport an accomplished thing, and hence the Vedanta-texts do not convey the knowledge of Brahman as such an accomplished entity. At this point somebody propounds the following view.
Now to this knowledge, the knowledge of works which is based on the assumption of plurality of existence is not only useless but even opposed. The consideration of the Udgitha and the like, which is supplementary to works only, finds a place in the Vedanta-texts, only because like them it is of the nature of knowledge; but it has no direct connexion with the true topic of those texts.
The question here arises whether the act of knowledge of Brahman inculcated in Vedanta-texts, such as 'He who knows Brahman reaches the Highest, 'Having known him thus he passes beyond death, 'He knows Brahman, he becomes Brahman, is, in the view of Scripture, to be performed once only, or to be repeated more than once.
The assertion made by the Purvapakshin as to the impossibility of the world, comprising matter and souls and being either in its subtle or its gross condition, standing to Brahman in the relation of a body, we declare to be the vain outcome of altogether vicious reasoning springing from the idle fancies of persons who have never fully considered the meaning of the whole body of Vedanta-texts as supported by legitimate argumentation.
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