Śaṅkaraon Brahma Sūtra 4.1.6

‘ He who burns up these, let a man meditate upon him as udgitha’ (A"//. Up. I, 3, 1); ‘Let a man meditate on the fivefold Sdman in the worlds’ (A"//. Up. II, 2, i) ; ‘Let a man meditate on the sevenfold Saman in speech ’ (A7?. Up. II, 8, 1); ‘This earth is the fire is Sdman’ (ATA, Up. I, 6, ]). —With regard to these and similar meditations limited to members of sacrificial action, there arises a doubt whether the text enjoins contemplations on the udgitha and so on superinduced on Aditya and so on, or else contemplations on Aditya, &c., superinduced on the udgitha and so on. No definite rule can here be established, the purvapakshin maintains, since there is no basis for such a rule. For in the present case we are unable to ascertain any special pre-eminence, while we were able to do so in the case of Brahman. Of Brahman, which is the cause of the whole world and free from all evil and so on, we can assert definitively that it is superior to Aditya and so on ; the udgitha and so on, on the other hand, are equally mere effects, and we cannot therefore with certainty ascribe to any of them any pre-eminence. Or else we may decide that the ideas of the udgitha and so on are to be superinduced exclusively on Aditya and so on. For the udgitha and so on are of the nature of sacrificial work, and as it is known that the fruit is attained through the work, Aditya and so on if meditated upon as udgitha and so on will themselves become of the nature of work and thereby be causes of fruit. Moreover, the text, ‘ This earth is the Rik^ the fire is the Sdman,’ is followed by the complementary passage, ‘ this Sdman is placed upon this Rik^ where the w^ord ‘ Rik ’ denotes the earth and the word ‘ Sdman * the fire. Now this (viz. this calling the earth ^Rik' and calling the fire ‘ S^man ’) is possible only if the meaning of the passage is that the earth and the fire have to be viewed as Rik and S^man ; not if the Rik and the Siman were to be contemplated as earth and fire. For the term ‘king’ is metaphorically applied to the charioteer and not the term ‘ charioteer’ to the king; the reason being that the charioteer may be viewed as a king. Again in the text, ‘ Let a man meditate upon the fivefold Saman in the worlds,’ the use of the locative case ‘ in the worlds ’ intimates that the meditation on the Saman is to be superimposed on the worlds as its locus. This is also proved by the analogous passage, ‘ This Gayatra Saman is woven on the vital airs’ [Kh, Up. II, II, i). — Moreover (as proved before), in passages such as ‘ Aditya is Brahman, this is the instruction,’ Brahman, which is mentioned last, is superimposed on Aditya, which is mentioned first. In the same way the earth, &c., are mentioned first, and the hihk^ra, &c., mentioned last in passages such as ‘The earth is the hihkara’ (Kk, Up. II, i). For all these reasons the idea of members of sacrificial action has to be transferred to Aditya and so on, which are not such members. To this we make the following reply. The ideas of Aditya and so on are exclusively to be transferred to members of sacrificial action, such as the udgitha and so on. For what reason? ‘On account of effectuation’ that means : Because thus, through their connexion with the supersensuous result (of the sacrificial work under discussion), when the udgitha and so on are ceremonially qualified by being viewed as Aditya and so on, the sacri- ficial work is successful^. A scriptural passage —viz. Kh. Up. I, i> lOj ‘ Whatever one performs with knowledge, faith, and the Upanishad is more powerful’—moreover expressly declares that knowledge causes the success of sacrificial work. Well then, an objection is raised, let this be admitted with regard to those meditations which have for their result the success of certain works ; but how is it with meditations that have independent fruits of their own ? Of this latter nature ise.g. the meditation referred to vsi Kh, Up. 11,2,3, ‘ He who knowing this meditates on the fivefold Sdman in the worlds (to him belong the worlds in an ascending and a descending — scale).’ In those cases also, we reply, the meditation falls within the sphere of a person entitled to the performance of a certain work, and therefore it is proper to assume that it has a fruit only through its connexion with the supersensuous result of the work under the heading — of which it is mentioned ; the case being analogous to that of the godohana-vesseU. And as Aditya and so on are of the nature of fruits of action, they may be viewed as superior to the udgitha and so on which are of the nature of action only. Scriptural texts expressly teach that the reaching of Aditya (the sun) and so on constitutes the fruit of certain works.— Moreover the initial passages, ‘ Let a man meditate on the syllable Om as the udgitha,^ and ‘ Of this syllable the full account is this’ (AV/. Up. I, i, i), represent the udgitha only as the object of meditation, and only after that the the udgitha — undergo a certain ceremonial purification (saw- skara) by being meditated upon as Aditya and so on. The meditations therefore contribute, through the mediation of the constituent members, towards the apfirva, the supersensuous result of the entire sacrifice. text enjoins the contemplations on Aditya and so on.— Nor can we accept the remark that Aditya and so on being meditated upon as udgitha, &c., assume thereby the nature of work and thus will be productive of fruit. For pious meditation is in itself of the nature of w^ork, and thus capable of producing a result. And if .the udgitha and so on are meditated upon as Aditya, &c., they do not therefore cease to be of the nature of work.—In the passage, ‘ This Saman is placed upon this Rik^ the words ‘ Rik " and ‘ Saman * are employed to denote the earth and Agni by means of implication (laksha/^a), and implication may be based, according to opportunity, either on a less or more remote connexion of sense. Although, therefore, the intention of the passage is to enjoin the contemplation of the Rik and the Saman as earth and Agni, yet— as the Rik and the Saman are mentioned separately and as the earth and Agni are mentioned close by—we decide that, on the ground of their connexion with the Rik and Saman, the words ‘ Rik and ‘ SAman ’ are employed to denote them (i. e. earth and Agni) only. For we also cannot altogether deny that the word ‘charioteer’ may, for some reason or other, metaphorically denote a king. — Moreover the position of the words in the clause, ‘ Just this (earth) is Rikj declares that the Rik is of the nature of earth ; while if the text wanted to declare that the earth is of the nature of Rik, the words would be arranged as follows, ‘ this earth is just Rik,^ Moreover the concluding clause, ‘He who knowing this sings the Saman,’ refers only to a cognition based on a subordinate member (of sacrificial action), not to one based on the earth and so on.—Analogously in the passage, ‘ Let a man meditate (on) the fivefold Saman in the worlds,’ the worlds —although enounced in the locative case—have to be superimposed on the S^man, as the circumstance of ‘ the ‘ Saman ’ being exhibited in the objective case indicates it to be the object of meditation. For if the worlds are superimposed on the S^man, the SAman is meditated upon as the Self of the worlds ; while in the opposite case the worlds would be meditated upon as the Self of the Saman. —The same remark applies to the passage, ‘ This Gayatra — Saman is woven on the pra^^as* (AV/. Up. II, 11, i). Where again both members of the sentence are equally exhibited in the objective case, viz. in the passage, ‘ Let a man meditate on the sevenfold Saman (as) the sun' [Kit, Up. II, i), observe that the introductory — passages viz. ‘Meditation on the whole Saman is good;’ ‘Thus for the fivefold Saman ’ ‘Next for the sevenfold Saman’ (Kh, Up. ; IIj *5 * ; 7 ^ i)— represent the Saman only as the object of meditation, and therefrom conclude that Aditya has 10 be superinduced on it, and not the reverse.— From this very circumstance of the Saman being the object of meditation, it follows that even in cases w^icre the two members of the sentence have a reverse — position such as — ‘The earth (is) the hinkara/ &c. the hinkara, &c., have to — be viewed as earth and so on ; and not the reverse. From all this it follows that reflections based on things not forming constituent members of the sacrifice, such as Aditya and so on, are to be superimposed on the udgitha and the like which are such constituent members.