A doubt arises whether meditations such as the one enjoined in the text,
'Let him meditate on the syllable Om as the Udgîtha,' which are
connected with constituent elements of the sacrifice such as the Udgîtha,
contribute towards the accomplishment of the sacrifice, and hence must
be performed at the sacrifice as part of it; or whether they, like the
godohana vessel, benefit the agent apart from the sacrifice, and
therefore may be undertaken according to desire.--But has it not been
already decided under III, 3, 42 that those meditations are generally
beneficial to man, and not therefore restricted to the sacrifices?--True;
it is just for the purpose of further confirming that conclusion that
objections are now raised against it on the ground of some inferential
marks (linga) and reasoning. For there it was maintained on the strength
of the text 'therefore he does both' that those meditations have results
independent of the sacrifice. But there are several reasons favouring
the view that those meditations must be connected with the sacrifices as
subordinate members, just as the Udgîtha and the rest to which the
meditations refer.
Their case is by no means analogous to that of the godohana vessel, for,
while in the case of the latter, the text expressly declares the
existence of a special result, 'For him who is desirous of cattle he is
to bring water in a godohana,' the texts enjoining those meditations do
not state special results for them. For clauses such as 'he is to
meditate on the Udgîtha' intimate only that the Udgîtha is connected
with the meditation; while their connexion with certain results is known
from other clauses, such as 'whatever he does with knowledge, with faith,
with the Upanishad, that is more vigorous' (according to which the
result of such meditations is only to strengthen the result of the
sacrifices). And when a meditation of this kind has, on the ground of
its connexion with the Udgîtha or the like--which themselves are
invariably connected with sacrifices--been cognised to form an element
of a sacrifice, some other passage which may declare a fruit for that
meditation can only be taken as an arthavâda; just as the passage which
declares that he whose sacrificial ladle is made of parna wood does not
hear an evil sound. In the same way, therefore, as the Udgîtha and so on,
which are the bases of those meditations, are to be employed only as
constituent parts of the sacrifices, so the meditations also connected
with those constituent parts are themselves to be employed as
constituent parts of the sacrifices only.