Nor is there any force in the argument that knowledge is only auxiliary
to work because works are enjoined on him who possesses knowledge. For
the text which refers to the man 'who has read the Veda' enjoins works
on him who has merely _read_ the texts, and _reading_ there means
nothing more than the apprehension of the aggregate of syllables called
Veda, without any insight into their meaning. A man who has thus
mastered the words of the Veda apprehends therefrom that it makes
statements as to works having certain results, and then on his own
account applies himself to the enquiry into the meaning of those
declarations; he who is desirous of work applies himself to the
knowledge of works; he who is desirous of Release applies himself to the
knowledge of Brahman. And even if the injunction of _reading_ were
understood as prompting to the understanding of the text also, all the
same, knowledge would not be a subsidiary to works. For _knowledge_, in
the sense of the Upanishads, is something different from mere cognition
of sense. In the same way as the performance of such works as the
Jyotishtoma sacrifice is something different from the cognition of the
true nature of those works; so that vidyâ, which effects the highest
purpose of man, i. e. devout meditation (dhyâna, upâsanâ), is something
different from the mere cognition of the true nature of Brahman.
Knowledge of that kind has not the most remote connexion even with works.