Śaṅkaraon Brahma Sūtra 3.3.50

Independence has, against the general subject-matter, to be assumed for the fire-altars built of mind and so on, for that reason also that the text connects the constituent members of the sacrificial action with activities of the mind, &c. ; viz. in the passage, ‘ With mind only they are established, with mind only they are piled, with mind only the cups were taken, with mind the udgatr/s praised, w'ith mind the hotrfs recited ; whatever work is done at the sacrifice, whatever sacrificial work, was done as consisting of mind, by mind only, at those fire-altars made of mind, piled by mind,* &c. For that connexion has for its result an imaginative combination (of certain mental en- ergies with the parts of the sacrifice), and the obtainment of the parts of the sacrifice which arc objects of actual perception cannot be made dependent on such imaginative combination ^ Nor must it be supposed that, because here also, as in the case of the meditation on the udgitha, the vidyd is connected with members of the sacrificial action, it enters into that action as a constituent part; for the state- ments of the text differ in the two cases. For in our case scripture does not say that we are to take some member of a sacrificial action and then to superimpose upon it such and such a name ; but rather takes six and thirty thousand different energies of the mind and identifies them with the fire-altars, the cups, and so on, just as in some other place it teaches a meditation on man viewed as the sacrifice. The number given by the text is originally observed as belonging to the days of a man’s life, and is then transferred to the mental energies connected therewith.—From the con- nexion (referred to in the Sutra) it therefore follows that the agnis piled of mind, &c. arc independent.—The clause ‘ and so on ’ (met with in the Sutra) must be explained as comprehending ‘transference* and the like as far as possi- ble. For if the text says, ‘Each of those Agnis is as great as that prior one,’ it transfers the glory of the fire-altar consisting of the work (i.e. the real altar piled of bricks) to the altars consisting of knowledge and so on, and thereby ^ Kimarthain idam anubandhakara?2aw tad aha, sampad ili, upa- styartho hy aimbandhas tathapi manaj^idddinam akri}4ngatve kim ayataw tad aha, na ^eti, teshaw kriyafigatve sakshad evddha- nadiprasiddher anarthik^ sampad ity arthav5. An. Gi. — expresses want of regard for the work. Nor can it be said that if there is connexion (of all the agnis) with the sacri- ficial action, the later ones (i.e. those made of mind) may optionally be used instead of the original agnis made of bricks (as was asserted by the purvapakshin in Sfitra 45). For the later agnis arc incapable of assisting the sacrificial action by means of those energies with which the original agni assists it, viz.by bearing theMiavaniya fire and so on. The assertion, again, made by the purvapakshin (Sutra 46) that ‘transference’ strengthens his view in so far as transfer- ence ispossible only where there is equality, is already refuted by the remark that also on our view transference is possible, since the fanciful fire-altars are equal to the real fire-altar in so — far as both are fire-altars. And that direct enunciation and — so on favour our conclusion has been shown. From con- — nexion and so on it therefore follows that the agnis piled of mind, &c. arc independent. ‘ As in the case of the separateness of other cognitions.’ As other cognitions, such as e. g. the 5a;/rfilya-vidya, which have each their own parti- cular connexion, separate themselves from works and other cognitions and are independent ; so it is in our case also. Moreover ‘there is seen’ an analogous case of independence from the leading subject-matter. The offering called aveshri which is mentioned in the sacred texts under the heading of the ra^^asuya-sacrifice, is to be taken out from that heading because it is connected with the three higher castes, while the rd^^asuya can be offered by a member of the warrior caste only. This has been explained in the first section (i.e. in the Purva Miniclwsa-sutras).