Madhvaon Brahma Sūtra 1.1.3

As stated in the following and other Srutis, * He who has not studied the Vedas cannot understand, so as to attain to heaven, the Lord who is perfect and the omniscient maker of all (T. B. iii.12-9). * The Person (indweller of all bodies) is revealed by the Upanishads only.’ For deductive reasoning cannot independently or invariably be a means of proving the truth, which is said as follows in the Mahakaurma. ‘In no instance or at no time syllogistic reason- ing unaided by the Sruti can prove true anything by which the senses are not affected ; nor can the sensu- ous perception do it.’ But either of these when aided by the Sruti will become efficacious and authorita- tive beyond a doubt. The only form of reasoning admis* sible is that which is employed to decide as to the mean- ing of the texts, by reconciling the apparent inconsistencies between the various portions of Scripture. But other- wise reasoning (being unprofitable) should be abandoned. For, as observed in the Yaraha Purana, syllogisms can be framed in all cases (to prove anything): “ Deductive reasoning independent of the Sruti can of course be em- ployed in all cases ; therefore it is powerless to discover supersensuous things without the aid of Scripture.” Seed, the pulse, the seed of the banyan, butter, processes of manuring, reminiscences (of a previous life), the loadstone, the lenses, the draught of water, the reso- lution of the body into its elements after death, propitia- tion of the gods, cessation of activity in a dead body— these, it is certain, are means of inferring the existence of things which senses cannot cognise.” From this state- ment in the Moksha Dharma the atheistic position would distinctly appear untenable. Further, austerities etc., are seen to produce (their own) fruits. By the word Sastra are meant Rik, Yajus, Saman and Atharva Yedas, the Maha Bharata and the Mula Ramayana. And also whatever agrees with these is to be considered Sastra. All other extensive works do not form Sastra, but are wrong (crooked) ways (paths)—the Skanda Purana. And in the Moksha Dharma, the passage beginning with,' the Sankhya, Yoga, Pasupata, Vedas, Aranyakas,’ (the Vedas and Pancharatra having the same purport), declares the authoritativeness of the Pancharatra; while other systems are shown to be different (of an inadmissible character) in their conclusions. ‘ (That) of whose cognition Scripture (is the only) means,’ is the meaning of the Bahuvrihi compound Bastrayoni in this Sutra. Notwithstanding that the contrary may appear to the ignorant, other (deities) do not form the subject of (the whole) Scripture. For,