Questions of King Milinda Part 01

SR No.: 007681
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1890
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 728

III ADHYAYA, 3 PÂDA, 57.
275
tributed as well as his aggregate condition. References to him in his distributed state are made in the passage,
Aupamanyava, whom do you meditate on as the Self? He replied : Heaven only, venerable king. He said : The Self which you meditate on is the Vaisvanara Self called Sutegas ;' and in the following passages (Kh. Up. V, 12–17). A meditation on him in his aggregate state, on the other hand, is referred to in the passage (V, 18), 'Of that Vaisvanara Self the head is Sutegas, the eye Visvarûpa, the breath Prithagvartman, the trunk Bahula, the bladder Rayi, the feet the earth,' &c.—A doubt here arises whether the text intimates a meditation on Vaisvânara in both his forms or only in his aggregate form.
The purvapakshin maintains that we have to do with meditations on Vaisvânara in his distributed form, firstly, because the text exhibits a special verb, viz. you meditate on,' with reference to each of the limbs, Sutegas and so on; and secondly because the text states special fruits (connected with each special meditation) in the passage, *Therefore every kind of Soma libation is seen in your house,' and the later similar passages.
To this we make the following reply. We must sup. pose that the entire section aims at intimating the preeminence,' i.e. at intimating as its pre-eminent subject, a meditation on 'plenitude,' i. e. on Vaisvanara in his aggregate state, who comprises within himself a plurality of things ; not a number of special meditations on the limbs of Vaisvånara. As in the case of sacrifices.' In the same way as the Vedic texts referring to sacrifices such as the darsapürnamäsa aim at enjoining the performance of the entire sacrifice only, i. e. of the chief sacrificial action together with its members and not in addition the performance of single subordinate members such as the prayågas, nor again the performance of the chief action together with some of its subordinate members; so it is here also.But whence do you know that 'plenitude' is the preeminent topic of the passage ?-It is shown by scripture, we reply, since we apprehend that the entire section forms a connected whole. For on examining the connexion of
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