That the altar built of thought is an optional substitute for the altar
built of bricks, and of the nature of an action, appears therefrom also
that the clause 'of these each one is as great as that previous one,'
explicitly transfers to the altars of mind, and so on, the powers of the
previous altar made of bricks. All those altars thus having equal
effects there is choice between them. The altars of mind, and so on,
therefore are auxiliary members of the sacrificial performance which
they help to accomplish, and hence themselves of the nature of action.--
Against this view the next Sûtra declares itself.
46. But it is a meditation only, on account of assertion and what is
seen.
The altars built of mind, and so on, are not of the nature of action,
but of meditation only, i.e. they belong to a performance which is of
the nature of meditation only. For this is what the text asserts, viz.
in the clauses 'they are built of knowledge only,' and 'by knowledge
they are built for him who thus knows.' As the energies of mind, speech,
sight, and so on, cannot be piled up like bricks, it is indeed a matter
of course that the so-called altars constructed of mind, and so on, can
be mental constructions only; but the text in addition specially
confirms this by declaring that those altars are elements in an activity
of purely intellectual character, and hence themselves mere creatures of
the intellect. Moreover there is seen in the text a performance
consisting of thought only to which those fires stand in a subsidiary
relation, 'by the mind they were established on hearths, by the mind
they were built up, by the mind the Soma cups were drawn thereat; by the
mind they chanted, and by the mind they recited; whatever rite is
performed at the sacrifice, whatever sacrificial rite there is, that, as
consisting of mind, was performed by the mind only, on those (fire-
altars) composed of mind, built up of mind.' From this declaration, that
whatever sacrificial rite is actually performed in the case of fire-
altars built of bricks is performed mentally only in the case of altars
built of mind, it follows that the entire performance is a mental one
only, i.e. an act of meditation.--But, an objection is raised, as the
entire passus regarding the altars of mind does not contain any word of
injunctive power, and as the text states no special result (from which
it appears to follow that the passus does not enjoin a new independent
performance), we must, on the strength of the fact that the leading
subject-matter is an actual sacrificial performance as suggested by the
altars built of brick, give up the idea that the altars built of mind,
&c., are mental only because connected with a performance of merely
mental nature.--This objection the next Sûtra refutes.
47. And on account of the greater strength of direct statement, and so
on, there is no refutation.
The weaker means of proof, constituted by so-called leading subject-
matter, cannot refute what is established by three stronger means of
proof--direct statement, inferential mark, and syntactical connexion--
viz. that there is an independent purely mental performance, and that
the altars made of mind are parts of the latter. The direct statement is
contained in the following passage, 'Those fire-altars indeed are built
of knowledge,'--which is further explained in the subsequent passage,
'by knowledge alone these altars are built for him who knows this'--the
sense of which is: the structures of mind, and so on, are built in
connexion with a performance which consists of knowledge (i.e.
meditation).--The inferential mark is contained in the passage, 'For him
all beings at all times build them, even while he is asleep.' And the
syntactical connexion (vâkya) consists in the connexion of the two words
evamvide (for him who knows this), and kinvanti (they build)--the sense
being: for him who accomplishes the performance consisting of knowledge
all beings at all times build those altars. The proving power of the
passage above referred to as containing an indicatory mark (linga) lies
therein that a construction mentally performed at all times by all
beings cannot possibly connect itself with a sacrificial performance
through the brick-altar, which is constructed by certain definite agents
and on certain definite occasions only, and must therefore be an element
in a mental performance, i.e. a meditation.--The next Sûtra disposes of
the objection that the text cannot possibly mean to enjoin a new mental
performance, apart from the actual performance, because it contains no
word of injunctive force and does not mention a special result.
48. On account of connexions and the rest, as in the case of the
separateness of other cognitions. And this is seen (elsewhere also); as
declared (in the Pûrva Mîmâmsâ).
That the text enjoins a meditative performance different from the actual
performance of which the brick-altar is a constituent element, follows
from the reasons proving separation, viz. _the connexions_. i.e. the
things connected with the sacrifice, such as the Soma cups, the hymns,
the recitations, and so on. What is meant is that the special mention of
the cups, and so on, made in the passage 'by the mind the Soma cups were
drawn thereat,' proves the difference of the performance.--The 'and the
rest' of the Sûtra comprises the previously stated arguments, viz.
direct statement, and so on. 'As other meditations,' i.e. the case is
analogous to that of other meditations such as the meditation on the
small ether within the heart, which are likewise proved by textual
statement, and so on, to be different and separate from actual outward
sacrificial performances.--The existence of a separate meditative act
having thus been ascertained, the requisite injunction has to be
construed on the basis of the text as it stands.
Such construction of injunctions on the basis of texts of arthavâda
character is seen in other places also; the matter is discussed in Pû.
Mî. Sûtras III, 5, 21.--The result of the meditative performance follows
from the passage 'of these (altars made of mind, and so on) each is as
great as that former one (i.e. the altar built of bricks)'--for this
implies that the same result which the brick-altar accomplishes through
the sacrifice of which it forms an element is also attained through the
altars made of mind, and so on, through the meditations of which they
form parts.--The next Sûtra disposes of the argumentation that, as this
formal transfer of the result of the brick-altar to the altars built of
mind, and so on, shows the latter to possess the same virtues as the
former, we are bound to conclude that they also form constituent
elements of an actual (not merely meditative) performance.
49. Not so, on account of this being observed on account of similarity
also; as in the case of Death; for (the person in yonder orb) does not
occupy the worlds (of Death).
From a transfer or assimilation of this kind it does not necessarily
follow that things of different operation are equal, and that hence
those altars of mind, and so on, must connect themselves with an actual
outward performance. For it is observed that such assimilation rests
sometimes on a special point of resemblance only; so in the text, 'The
person in yonder orb is Death indeed,'--where the feature of resemblance
is the destroying power of the two; for the person within yonder orb
does certainly not occupy the same worlds, i.e. the same place as Death.
Analogously, in the case under discussion, the fact that the altars made
of mind are treated as, in a certain respect, equivalent to the altar
built of bricks, does not authorise us to connect those altars with the
sacrificial performance to which the altar of bricks belongs. When the
text says that the altar made of mind is as great as the altar of bricks,
this only means that the same result which is attained through the brick-
altar in connexion with its own sacrificial performance is also attained
through the altar of mind in connexion with the meditational performance
into which it enters.
50. And by a subsequent (Brâhmana) also the 'being of such a kind' of
the word (is proved). But the connexion is on account of plurality.
The subsequent Brâhmana (Sat. Br. X, 5, 4) also proves that the text
treating of the altars made of mind, and so on, enjoins a meditation
only. For that Brâhmana (which begins 'This brick-built fire-altar is
this world; the waters are its enclosing-stones,' &c.) declares further
on 'whosoever knows this thus comes to be that whole Agni who is the
space-filler,' and from this it appears that what is enjoined there is a
meditation with a special result of its own. And further on (X, 6) there
is another meditation enjoined, viz. one on Vaisvânara. All this shows
that the Agnirahasya book (Sat. Br. X) is not solely concerned with the
injunction of outward sacrificial acts.--But what then is the reason
that such matters as the mental (meditative) construction of fire-altars
which ought to be included in the Brihad-âranyaka are included in the
Agnirahasya?--'That connexion is on account of plurality,' i.e. the
altars made of mind, and so on, are, in the sacred text, dealt with in
proximity to the real altar made of bricks, because so many details of
the latter are mentally to be accomplished in the meditation.--Here
terminates the adhikarana of 'option with the previous one.'