Inferential mark here means Smriti. Smriti also declares that that
knowledge which effects Release is of the nature of continued
representation. Meditation therefore has to be repeated.--Here
terminates the adhikarana of 'repetition.'
3. But as the Self; this (the ancient Devotees) acknowledge (since the
texts) make (them) apprehend (in that way).
The following point is now taken into consideration. Is Brahman to be
meditated upon as something different from the meditating Devotee, or as
the Self of the latter?--The Pûrvapakshin holds the former view. For, he
says, the individual soul is something different from Brahman; as has
been proved under II, 1, 22; III, 4, 8; I, 1, 15. And Brahman must be
meditated upon as it truly is; for if it is meditated upon under an
unreal aspect, the attaining to Brahman also will not be real, according
to the principle expressed in the text, 'According as a man's thought is
in this world, so will he be when he has departed this life' (Ch. Up.
III, 14, 1). This view the Sûtra sets aside. Brahman is rather to be
meditated upon as being the Self of the meditating Devotee. As the
meditating individual soul is the Self of its own body, so the highest
Brahman is the Self of the individual soul--this is the proper form of
meditation.--Why? Because the great Devotees of olden times acknowledged
this to be the true nature of meditation; compare the text 'Then I am
indeed thou, holy divinity, and thou art me.'--But how can the Devotees
claim that Brahman which is a different being is their 'Ego'?--Because
the texts enable them to apprehend this relation as one free from
contradiction. 'He who dwelling within the Self is different from the
Self, whom the Self does not know, of whom the Self is the body, who
rules the Self from within; he is thy Self, the inner ruler, the
immortal one'(Bri. Up. III, 7, 3); 'In the True all these beings have
their root, they dwell in the True, they rest in the True;--in that all
that exists has its Self' (Kh. Up. VI, 8); 'All this indeed is Brahman'
(Kh. Up. III, 14, 1)--all these texts teach that all sentient and non-
sentient beings spring from Brahman, are merged in him, breathe through
him, are ruled by him, constitute his body; so that he is the Self of
all of them. In the same way therefore as, on the basis of the fact that
the individual soul occupies with regard to the body the position of a
Self, we form such judgments of co-ordination as 'I am a god--I am a
man'; the fact of the individual Self being of the nature of Self
justifies us in viewing our own Ego as belonging to the highest Self. On
the presupposition of all ideas being finally based on Brahman and hence
all words also finally denoting Brahman, the texts therefore make such
statements of mutual implication as 'I am thou, O holy divinity, and
thou art me.' On this view of the relation of individual soul and
highest Self there is no real contradiction between two, apparently
contradictory, sets of texts, viz. those on the one hand which negative
the view of the soul being different from the highest Self, 'Now if a
man meditates upon another divinity, thinking "the divinity is one and I
another," he does not know'; 'He is incomplete, let him meditate upon
Him as the Self'; 'Everything abandons him who views anything apart from
the Self (Bri. Up. I, 4, 10; 7-II, 4, 6); and on the other hand those
texts which set forth the view of the soul and the highest Self being
different entities, 'Thinking of the (individual) Self and the Mover as
different'(Svet. Up. I, 6). For our view implies a denial of difference
in so far as the individual 'I' is of the nature of the Self; and it
implies an acknowledgment of difference in so far as it allows the
highest Self to differ from the individual soul in the same way as the
latter differs from its body. The clause 'he is incomplete' (in one of
the texts quoted above) refers to the fact that Brahman which is
different from the soul constitutes the Self of the soul, while the soul
constitutes the body of Brahman.--It thus remains a settled conclusion
that Brahman is to be meditated upon as constituting the Self of the
meditating Devotee.--Here terminates the adhikarana of 'meditation under
the aspect of Self.'
4. Not in the symbol; for (the symbol) is not that one (i.e. the Self of
the Devotee).
'Let a man meditate on mind as Brahman' (Ch. Up. III, 18, 1); 'He who
meditates on name as Brahman' (Ch. Up. VII, 15)--with regard to these
and similar meditations on outward symbols (pratîka) of Brahman there
arises a doubt, viz. whether in them the symbols are to be thought of as
of the nature of Self or not. The Pûrvapakshin holds the former view.
For, he says, in form those injunctions do not differ from other
injunctions of meditation on Brahman, and Brahman, as we have seen,
constitutes the Self of the meditating Devotee.--This view the Sûtra
sets aside. A pratîka cannot be meditated on as being of the nature of
Self; for the pratîka is not the Self of the meditating Devotee. What,
in those meditations, is to be meditated upon is the pratîka only, not
Brahman: the latter enters into the meditation only as qualifying its
aspect. For by a meditation on a pratîka we understand a meditation in
which something that is not Brahman is viewed under the aspect of
Brahman, and as the pratîka--the object of meditation--is not the Self
of the Devotee it cannot be viewed under that form.--But an objection is
raised here also, it is Brahman which is the real object of meditation;
for where Brahman _may_ be viewed as the object of meditation, it is
inappropriate to assume as objects non-sentient things of small power
such as the mind, and so on. The object of meditation therefore is
Brahman viewed under the aspect of mind, and so on.--This objection the
next Sûtra disposes of.