Śaṅkaraon Brahma Sūtra 3.3.44

In the Agnirahasya of the Va^saneyins, in the Brahma;/a beginning * for in the beginning indeed this was not exis- tent/ we read with reference to mind (manas), ‘ It saw thirty- six thousand shining fire-altars, belonging to itself, made of mind, built of mind.* And, further on, the text makes similar statements about other fanciful fire-altars built of speech, built of breath, built of sight, built of hearing, built of work, built of — fire. A doubt here arises whether these fire-altars built of mind and so on are connected with the act (i. e. the construction of the fire-altar made of bricks), and supplementary to it, or whether they are independent, constituting a mere vidya. Against the primd facie view that those agnis are con- nected with the sacrificial act under whose heading the text records them, the Sutra maintains their independence, ‘ on account of the majority of indicatory marks/ For we meet in that Bralima//a with a number of indicatory marks confirming that those agnis constitute a mere vidya ; cp. e. g. the following passages : ‘ Whatever these beings con- ceive in their minds, that is a means for those fire-altars,’ — and ‘All beings always pile up those fire-altars for him who thus knows, even when he sleeps,’ and so onk And that indicatory marks (linga) are of greater force than the leading subject-matter (prakara//a) has been explained in the Piirva Mima///sa (III, 3, 14).