Questions of King Milinda Part 02

SR No.: 007682
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 2240
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 38 MB

Page 1359

346
VEDÂNTA-SÛTRAS.
and so on if meditated upon as udgîtha and so on will themselves become of the nature of work and thereby be causes of fruit.-Moreover, the text, 'This earth is the Rik, the fire is the Saman,' is followed by the complementary passage, this Saman is placed upon this Rik,' where the word 'Rik' denotes the earth and the word 'Saman' the fire. Now this (viz. this calling the earth 'Rik' and calling the fire 'Saman') is possible only if the meaning of the passage is that the earth and the fire have to be viewed as Rik and Såman; not if the Rik and the Saman were to be contemplated as earth and fire. For the term 'king' is metaphorically applied to the charioteer—and not the term
charioteer' to the king—the reason being that the charioteer may be viewed as a king.–Again in the text, 'Let a man meditate upon the fivefold Såman in the worlds,' the use of the locative case 'in the worlds' intimates that the meditation on the Såman is to be superimposed on the worlds as its locus. This is also proved by the analogous passage,
This Gayatra Såman is woven on the vital airs' (Kh. Up. II, 11, 1).-Moreover (as proved before), in passages such as Aditya is Brahman, this is the instruction,' Brahman, which is mentioned last, is superimposed on Aditya, which is mentioned first. In the same way the earth, &c., are mentioned first, and the hinkâra, &c., mentioned last in passages such as 'The earth is the hinkara'(Kh. Up. II, 2, 1).
-For all these reasons the idea of members of sacrificial action has to be transferred to Aditya and so on, which are not such members.
To this we make the following reply. The ideas of Aditya and so on are exclusively to be transferred to members of sacrificial action, such as the udgitha and so on. For what reason ?—'On account of effectuation'-that means : Because thus, through their connexion with the supersensuous result (of the sacrificial work under discussion), when the udgitha and so on are ceremonially qualified by being viewed as Aditya and so on, the sacrificial work is successfull. A scriptural passage-viz. Kh.
I Certain constituent members of the sacrificial action-such as
Digitized by
Digized by Google