Zend Avesta Part 03

SR No.: 007673
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: L H Mills
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1887
Total Pages: 2618
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 1787

I ADHYAYA, I PÂDA, 8.
57
attribution of intelligence, applied to the elements and the like also; whence such phrases as the Self of the elements,'
the Self of the senses.' And even if we assume that the word 'Self' primarily signifies both classes of beings, we are unable to settle in any special case which of the two meanings the word has, unless we are aided either by the general heading under which it stands, or some determinative attributive word. But in the passage under discussion there is nothing to determine that the word refers to something non-intelligent, while, on the other hand, the Sat distinguished by thought forms the general heading, and Svetaketu, i.e. a being endowed with intelligence, is mentioned in close proximity. That a non-intelligent Self does not agree with Svetaketu, who possesses intelligence, we have already shown. All these circumstances determine the object of the word 'Self' here to be something intelligent. The word 'gyotis' does moreover not furnish an appropriate example; for according to common use it has the settled meaning of 'light' only, and is used in the sense of sacrifice only on account of the arthavâda assuming a similarity (of the sacrifice) to light.
A different explanation of the Sûtra is also possible. The preceding Sûtra may be taken completely to refute all doubts as to the word 'Self' having a figurative or double sense, and then the present Sûtra is to be explained as containing an independent reason, proving that the doctrine of the pradhana being the general cause is untenable.
Hence the non-intelligent pradhana is not denoted by the word 'Self.' This the teacher now proceeds to prove by an additional reason.
8. And (the pradhâna cannot be denoted by the word 'Self') because there is no statement of its having to be set aside.
If the pradhana which is the Not-Self were denoted by the term Being' (Sat), and if the passage 'That is the Self, that art thou, O Svetaketu,' referred to the pradhana ; the teacher whose wish it is to impart instruction about the
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