Grihya Sutras

SR No.: 007685
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1886
Total Pages: 2642
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 2410

I ADIIYÂYA, 3 PÂDA, 32.
217
selves are not qualified. So it is likewise impossible that the rishis themselves should be qualified for meditations connected with rishis, such as expressed in passages like Bri. Up. II, 2, 4, 'These two are the rishis Gautama and Bharadvâga; the right Gautama, the left Bharadvâga.'-Another reason for the non-qualification of the gods is stated in the following Sutra.
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32. And (the devas, &c. are not qualified) on account of (the words denoting the devas, &c.) being (used) in the sense of (sphere of) light.
To that sphere of light, the pûrvapakshin resumes, which is stationed in the sky, and during its diurnal revolutions illumines the world, terms such as Âditya, i. e. the names of devas, are applied, as we know from the use of ordinary language, and from Vedic complementary passages1. But of a mere sphere of light we cannot understand how it should be endowed with either a bodily form, consisting of the heart and the like, or intelligence, or the capability of forming wishes2. For mere light we know to be, like earth, entirely devoid of intelligence. The same observation applies to Agni (fire), and so on. It will perhaps be said that our objection is not valid, because the personality of the devas is known from the mantras, arthavâdas, itihâsas, purânas, and from the conceptions of ordinary life 3; but we contest the relevancy of this remark. For the conceptions of ordinary life do not constitute an independent means of knowledge; we rather say that a thing is known from ordinary life if it is known by the (acknowledged) means of knowledge, perception, &c. But none of the recognised means of knowledge, such as perception and the like, apply to the
1 As, for instance, 'So long as Âditya rises in the east and sets in the west' (Kh. Up. III, 6, 4).
Whence it follows that the devas are not personal beings, and therefore not qualified for the knowledge of Brahman.
3 Yama, for instance, being ordinarily represented as a person with a staff in his hand, Varuna with a noose, Indra with a thunderbolt, &c. &c.
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