The aim of the soul is not at Hiranyagarbha, but at the highest Brahman
itself. For the complementary sentence 'I am the glorious among
Brâhmanas' shows that what the soul aims at is the condition of the
universal Self, which has for its antecedent the putting off of all
Nescience. For this appears from the preceding text, 'As a horse shakes
his hairs and as the moon frees herself from the mouth of Râhu; having
shaken off the body may I obtain--the uncreated Brahman-world' declares
that the Brahman-world, which is the thing to be reached, is something
non-created, and explicitly states that reaching that world implies
freedom from all bondage whatsoever.--It is for these reasons that
Jaimini holds that the deities speeding the soul on its way lead on him
only who has the highest Brahman for the object of his meditation.
Now the Reverend Bâdarâyana declares his own view, which constitutes the
final conclusion in this matter.
14. Those not depending on symbols he leads, thus Bâdarâyana thinks;
there being a defect in both cases; and he whose thought is that.
Bâdarâyana is of opinion that the deities lead those not depending on
symbols, i.e. all meditating devotees other than those depending on
symbols. That is to say, the view that those are led who meditate on the
effected Brahman cannot be upheld; nor is there an exclusive rule that
those only should be led on who meditate on the highest Brahman. The
truth is that those are led who meditate on the highest Brahman, and
also those who meditate on the Self (soul) as different from matter
(Prakriti) and having Brahman for its true Self. Souls of both these
kinds are led on to Brahman. Those on the other hand whose object of
meditation is such things as name and so on, which fall within what is a
mere effect of Brahman--such things being viewed either under the aspect
of Brahman, just as some valiant man may be viewed under the aspect of a
lion (which view expresses itself in the judgment 'Devadatta is a lion
'); or by themselves (without reference to Brahman)--all those are not
led on to Brahman. Why so?' Because there is a defect in both cases,' i.
e. in both the views rejected by Bâdarâyana. The view that those are led
who meditate on the effected Brahman is in conflict with texts such as
'having risen from this body and reached the highest light' (Ch. Up.
VIII, 12, 3)--for the nature of the fruit depends on the nature of the
meditation; and the view that those only are led to the highest Brahman
who meditate on the highest Brahman, would stultify texts such as the
one which expressly declares Agni and the rest of the deities to lead on
those who possess the knowledge of the five fires ('Those who know this,
viz. the Vidyâ of the five fires, and those who in the forest meditate
on faith and austerity go to light--there is a person not human, he
leads them to Brahman,' Ch. Up. V, 10). Both these views thus being
defective, we adhere to the conclusion that the deities lead on to
Brahman the two classes of souls mentioned above.--This the Sûtra
further declares in the words 'he whose thought is that' (tatkratuh),
the sense of which is that he whose thought is that reaches that, i.e.
that the nature of what is reached depends on the nature of the
meditation. This argument is founded on the text, 'According to what his
thought is (yathâ-kratuh) in this world, so will he be when he has
departed this life' (Ch. Up. III, 14), which implies the principle that
what a soul after death attains is according to its thought and
meditation in this life; and moreover we have direct scriptural
statements to the effect that those who possess the knowledge of the
five fires proceed on the path of the Gods, and that those who proceed
on that path reach Brahman and do not return. Analogous reasoning proves
that meditation on the soul as free from matter and having Brahman for
its true Self also leads to the highest Brahman. In the case of those,
on the other hand, who rely on the symbols (in which they meditatively
contemplate Brahman), beginning with name and terminating with prâna.
('He who meditates on name as Brahman,' Ch. Up. VII, 1 ff.), the
meditation is not proved by texts of the two kinds previously mentioned
to lead to Brahman; it rather is contaminated by an element not of the
nature of intelligence, and hence--according to the principle that the
result of a meditation is the same in nature as the meditation itself--
the soul of the inferior devotee practising such meditation does not
proceed by the path of light and does not reach Brahman.--That this
distinction is declared by Scripture itself, the next Sûtra shows.