Smriti also declares this prohibition of hearing, and so on. 'The ears
of him who hears the Veda are to be filled with molten lead and lac; if
he pronounces it his tongue is to be slit; if he preserves it his body
is to be cut through.' And 'He is not to teach him sacred duties or vows.
'--It is thus a settled matter that the Sûdras are not qualified for
meditations on Brahman.
We must here point out that the non-qualification of Sûdras for the
cognition of Brahman can in no way be asserted by those who hold that a
Brahman consisting of pure non-differenced intelligence constitutes the
sole reality; that everything else is false; that all bondage is unreal;
that such bondage may be put an end to by the mere cognition of the true
nature of Reality--such cognition resulting from the hearing of certain
texts; and that the cessation of bondage thus effected constitutes final
Release. For knowledge of the true nature of Reality, in the sense
indicated, and the release resulting from it, may be secured by any one
who learns from another person that Brahman alone is real and that
everything else is falsely superimposed on Brahman. That the cognition
of such truth can be arrived at only on the basis of certain Vedic texts,
such as 'Thou art that,' is a restriction which does not admit of proof;
for knowledge of the truth does not depend on man's choice, and at once
springs up in the mind even of an unwilling man as soon as the
conditions for such origination are present. Nor can it be proved in any
way that bondage can be put an end to only through such knowledge of the
truth as springs from Vedic texts; for error comes to an end through the
knowledge of the true nature of things, whatever agency may give rise to
such knowledge. True knowledge, of the kind described, will spring up in
the mind of a man as soon as he hears the non-scriptural declaration,
'Brahman, consisting of non-differenced intelligence, is the sole
Reality; everything else is false,' and this will suffice to free him
from error. When a competent and trustworthy person asserts that what
was mistaken for silver is merely a sparkling shell, the error of a
Sûdra no less than of a Brâhmana comes to an end; in the same way a
Sûdra also will free himself from the great cosmic error as soon as the
knowledge of the true nature of things has arisen in his mind through a
statement resting on the traditional lore of men knowing the Veda. Nor
must you object to this on the ground that men knowing the Veda do not
instruct Sûdras, and so on, because the text, 'he is not to teach him
sacred things,' forbids them to do so; for men who have once learned--
from texts such as 'Thou art that'--that Brahman is their Self, and thus
are standing on the very top of the Veda as it were, move no longer in
the sphere of those to whom injunctions and prohibitions apply, and the
prohibition quoted does not therefore touch them. Knowledge of Brahman
may thus spring up in the mind of Sûdras and the like, owing to
instruction received from one of those men who have passed beyond all
prohibition. Nor must it be said that the instance of the shell and the
silver is not analogous, in so far, namely, as the error with regard to
silver in the shell comes to an end as soon as the true state of things
is declared; while the great cosmic error that clouds the Sûdra's mind
does not come to an end as soon as, from the teaching of another man, he
learns the truth about Reality. For the case of the Sûdra does not
herein differ from that of the Brâhmana; the latter also does not at
once free himself from the cosmic error. Nor again will it avail to
plead that the sacred texts originate the demanded final cognition in
the mind of the Brâhmana as soon as meditation has dispelled the
obstructive imagination of plurality; for in the same way, i.e. helped
by meditation, the non-Vedic instruction given by another person
produces the required cognition in the mind of the Sûdra. For meditation
means nothing but a steady consideration of the sense which sentences
declaratory of the unity of Brahman and the Self may convey, and the
effect of such meditation is to destroy all impressions opposed to such
unity; you yourself thus admit that the injunction of meditation aims at
something visible (i.e. an effect that can be definitely assigned,
whence it follows that the Sûdra also is qualified for it, while he
would not be qualified for an activity having an 'adrishta,' i.e.
supersensuous, transcendental effect). The recital of the text of the
Veda also and the like (are not indispensable means for bringing about
cognition of Brahman, but) merely subserve the origination of the _desire_
of knowledge. The desire of knowledge may arise in a Sûdra also (viz. in
some other way), and thereupon real knowledge may result from non-Vedic
instruction, obstructive imaginations having previously been destroyed
by meditation. And thus in his case also non-real bondage will come to
an end.--The same conclusion may also be arrived at by a different road.
The mere ordinary instruments of knowledge, viz. perception and
inference assisted by reasoning, may suggest to the Sûdra the theory
that there is an inward Reality constituted by non-differenced self-
luminous intelligence, that this inward principle witnesses Nescience,
and that owing to Nescience the entire apparent world, with its manifold
distinctions of knowing subjects and objects of knowledge, is
superimposed upon the inner Reality. He may thereupon, by uninterrupted
meditation on this inner Reality, free himself from all imaginations
opposed to it, arrive at the intuitive knowledge of the inner principle,
and thus obtain final release. And this way being open to release, there
is really no use to be discerned in the Vedânta-texts, suggesting as
they clearly do the entirely false view that the real being (is not
absolutely homogeneous intelligence, but) possesses infinite
transcendent attributes, being endowed with manifold powers, connected
with manifold creations, and so on. In this way the qualification of
Sûdras for the knowledge of Brahman is perfectly clear. And as the
knowledge of Brahman may be reached in this way not only by Sûdras but
also by Brâhmanas and members of the other higher castes, the poor
Upanishad is practically defunct.--To this the following objection will
possibly be raised. Man being implicated in and confused by the
beginningless course of mundane existence, requires to receive from
somewhere a suggestion as to this empirical world being a mere error and
the Reality being something quite different, and thus only there arises
in him a desire to enter on an enquiry, proceeding by means of
perception, and so on. Now that which gives the required suggestion is
the Veda, and hence we cannot do without it.--But this objection is not
valid. For in the minds of those who are awed by all the dangers and
troubles of existence, the desire to enter on a philosophical
investigation of Reality, proceeding by means of Perception and
Inference, springs up quite apart from the Veda, owing to the
observation that there are various sects of philosophers. Sânkhyas, and
so on, who make it their business to carry on such investigations. And
when such desire is once roused, Perception and Inference alone (in the
way allowed by the Sânkaras themselves) lead on to the theory that the
only Reality is intelligence eternal, pure, self-luminous, non-dual, non-
changing, and that everything else is fictitiously superimposed thereon.
That this self-luminous Reality possesses no other attribute to be
learned from scripture is admitted; for according to your opinion also
scripture sublates everything that is not Brahman and merely
superimposed on it. Nor should it be said that we must have recourse to
the Upanishads for the purpose of establishing that the Real found in
the way of perception and inference is at the same time of the nature of
bliss; for the merely and absolutely Intelligent is seen of itself to be
of that nature, since it is different from everything that is not of
that nature.--There are, on the other hand, those who hold that the
knowledge which the Vedânta-texts enjoin as the means of Release is of
the nature of devout meditation; that such meditation has the effect of
winning the love of the supreme Spirit and is to be learned from
scripture only; that the injunctions of meditation refer to such
knowledge only as springs from the legitimate study of the Veda on the
part of a man duly purified by initiation and other ceremonies, and is
assisted by the seven means (see above, p. 17); and that the supreme
Person pleased by such meditation bestows on the devotee knowledge of
his own true nature, dissolves thereby the Nescience springing from
works, and thus releases him from bondage. And on this view the proof of
the non-qualification of the Sûdra, as given in the preceding Sûtras,
holds good.--Here terminates the adhikarana of 'the exclusion of the
Sûdras.'
Having thus completed the investigation of qualification which had
suggested itself in connexion with the matter in hand, the Sûtras return
to the being measured by a thumb, and state another reason for its being
explained as Brahman--as already understood on the basis of its being
declared the ruler of what is and what will be.