Madhvaon Brahma Sūtra 1.3.28

As to the authoritativeness of the Word (scripture), the trustworthiness of the speaker, and, through him, that of the word, cannot be ascertained, and any other statement going to prove it may have to be granted as eternal. These two difficulties will make it necessary to accept the view, that the wordis by nature a trustworthy testimony (an absolute vehicle for truth) and consequent- ly that if the word is eternal, as it appears from the text, “ O Virupa, do thou offer good prayers in words eter- nal, etc.’’ (Rv. VIII-64-6). Then if the gods who are spoken of in scripture should not be eternal and when the succession of other individuals to the several ranks of the gods who enter heaven may not be an invariable rule there is a clear contradiction, (in saying that scripture is eternal while the things spoken of in scripture are not eternal. This contradiction does not really exist, for as evidenced by the text, “ The maker has made the sun and moon as of old.” (Mn. I-38). “Just as the rule obtains in the revolution of time (i.e., the same ages, etc., succeeding one another in the same order), so the rule exactly holds in the succession of the gods, etc.; hence the world which proceeds from the Lord will never be any- thing unlike this.” The gods do succeed one another, on the authority of this (word) itself. This is a matter of direct perception to the great; other people also infer that there will be gods in the time to come, as there'are now (and as there were in the past).