Svetaketu, who is desirous of final release, is at first--by means of
the clause 'Thou art that'--instructed to meditate on himself as having
his Self in that which truly is; and thereupon the passage 'for him
there is delay' only as long as 'I shall not be released, then I shall
be united' teaches that for a man taking his stand upon that teaching
there will be Release, i.e. union with Brahman--which is delayed only
until this mortal body falls away. If, on the other hand, the text would
teach that the non-intelligent Pradhâna is the general cause, it could
not possibly teach that meditation on this Pradhâna being a man's Self
is the means towards his Release. A man taking his stand on such
meditation rather would on death be united with a non-sentient principle,
according to the scriptural saying, 'According as his thought is in this
world, so will he be when he has departed this life' (Ch. Up. III, 14,
1). And Scripture, which is more loving than even a thousand parents,
cannot possibly teach such union with the Non-sentient, which is
acknowledged to be the cause of all the assaults of suffering in its
threefold form. Moreover, those who hold the theory of the Pradhâna
being the cause of the world do not themselves maintain that he who
takes his stand upon the Pradhâna attains final release.
The Pradhâna is not the cause of the world for the following reason also: