Subsequently to the passage, 'Higher than the high Imperishable,' we
meet (in the passage, 'From him is born breath,' &c.) with a description
of the creation of all things, from breath down to earth, and then with
a statement of the form of this same source of beings as consisting of
all created beings, 'Fire is his head, his eyes the sun and the moon,
the quarters his ears, his speech the Vedas disclosed, the wind his
breath, his heart the universe; from his feet came the earth; he is
indeed the inner Self of all things.' This statement of form can refer
only to the highest Lord, and not either to the embodied soul, which, on
account of its small power, cannot be the cause of all effects, or to
the pradhâna, which cannot be the inner Self of all beings. We therefore
conclude that the source of all beings is the highest Lord, not either
of the other two.--But wherefrom do you conclude that the quoted
declaration of form refers to the source of all beings?--From the
general topic, we reply. The word 'he' (in the clause, 'He is indeed the
inner Self of all things') connects the passage with the general topic.
As the source of all beings constitutes the general topic, the whole
passage, from 'From him is born breath,' up to, 'He is the inner Self of
all beings,' refers to that same source. Similarly, when in ordinary
conversation a certain teacher forms the general topic of the talk, the
phrase, 'Study under him; he knows the Veda and the Vedâ@ngas
thoroughly,' as a matter of course, refers to that same teacher.--But
how can a bodily form be ascribed to the source of all beings which is
characterised by invisibility and similar attributes?--The statement as
to its nature, we reply, is made for the purpose of showing that the
source of all beings is the Self of all beings, not of showing that it
is of a bodily nature. The case is analogous to such passages as, 'I am
food, I am food, I am the eater of food' (Taitt. Up. III, 10,
6).--Others, however, are of opinion[151] that the statement quoted does
not refer to the source of all beings, because that to which it refers
is spoken of as something produced. For, on the one hand, the
immediately preceding passage ('From him is born health, mind, and all
organs of sense, ether, air, light, water, and the earth, the support of
all') speaks of the aggregate of beings from air down to earth as
something produced, and, on the other hand, a passage met with later on
('From him comes Agni, the sun being his fuel,' up to 'All herbs and
juices') expresses itself to the same purpose. How then should all at
once, in the midst of these two passages (which refer to the creation),
a statement be made about the nature of the source of all beings?--The
attribute of being the Self of all beings, (which above was said to be
mentioned in the passage about the creation, 'Fire is his head,' &c., is
not mentioned there but) is stated only later on in a passage subsequent
to that which refers to the creation, viz. 'The Person is all this,
sacrifice,' &c. (II, 1, 10).--Now, we see that /s/ruti as well as
sm/ri/ti speaks of the birth of Prajâpati, whose body is this threefold
world; compare /Ri/g-veda Sa/m/h. X, 121, 1, 'Hira/n/ya-garbha arose in
the beginning; he was the one born Lord of things existing. He
established the earth and this sky; to what God shall we offer our
oblation?' where the expression 'arose' means 'he was born.' And in
sm/ri/ti we read, 'He is the first embodied one, he is called the
Person; as the primal creator of the beings Brahman was evolved in the
beginning.' This Person which is (not the original Brahman but) an
effect (like other created beings) may be called the internal Self of
all beings (as it is called in II, 1, 4), because in the form of the
Self of breath it abides in the Selfs of all beings.--On this latter
explanation (according to which the passage, 'Fire is his head,' &c.,
does not describe the nature of the highest Lord, and can therefore not
be referred to in the Sûtra) the declaration as to the Lord being the
'nature' of all which is contained in the passage, 'The Person is all
this, sacrifice,' &c., must be taken as the reason for establishing the
highest Lord, (i.e. as the passage which, according to the Sûtra, proves
that the source of all beings is the highest Lord[152].)
24. Vai/s/vânara (is the highest Lord) on account of the distinction
qualifying the common terms (Vai/s/vânara and Self).
(In Ch. Up. V, 11 ff.) a discussion begins with the words, 'What is our
Self, what is Brahman?' and is carried on in the passage, 'You know at
present that Vai/s/vânara Self, tell us that;' after that it is declared
with reference to Heaven, sun, air, ether, water, and earth, that they
are connected with the qualities of having good light, &c., and, in
order to disparage devout meditation on them singly, that they stand to
the Vai/s/vânara in the relation of being his head, &c., merely; and
then finally (V, 18) it is said, 'But he who meditates on the
Vai/s/vânara Self as measured by a span, as abhivimâna[153], he eats
food in all worlds, in all beings, in all Selfs. Of that Vai/s/vânara
Self the head is Sutejas (having good light), the eye Vi/s/varûpa
(multiform), the breath P/ri/thagvartman (moving in various courses),
the trunk Bahula (full), the bladder Rayi (wealth), the feet the earth,
the chest the altar, the hairs the grass on the altar, the heart the
Gârhapatya fire, the mind the Anvâhârya fire, the mouth the Âhavanîya
fire.'--Here the doubt arises whether by the term 'Vai/s/vânara' we have
to understand the gastric fire, or the elemental fire, or the divinity
presiding over the latter, or the embodied soul, or the highest
Lord.--But what, it may be asked, gives rise to this doubt?--The
circumstance, we reply, of 'Vai/s/vânara' being employed as a common
term for the gastric fire, the elemental fire, and the divinity of the
latter, while 'Self' is a term applying to the embodied soul as well as
to the highest Lord. Hence the doubt arises which meaning of the term is
to be accepted and which to be set aside.
Which, then, is the alternative to be embraced?--Vai/s/vânara, the
pûrvapakshin maintains, is the gastric fire, because we meet, in some
passages, with the term used in that special sense; so, for instance
(B/ri/. Up. V, 9), 'Agni Vai/s/vânara is the fire within man by which
the food that is eaten is cooked.'--Or else the term may denote fire in
general, as we see it used in that sense also; so, for instance
(/Ri/g-veda Sa/m/h. X, 88, 12), 'For the whole world the gods have made
the Agni Vai/s/vânara a sign of the days.' Or, in the third place, the
word may denote that divinity whose body is fire. For passages in which
the term has that sense are likewise met with; compare, for instance,
/Ri/g-veda Sa/m/h. I, 98, 1, 'May we be in the favour of Vai/s/vânara;
for he is the king of the beings, giving pleasure, of ready grace;' this
and similar passages properly applying to a divinity endowed with power
and similar qualities. Perhaps it will be urged against the preceding
explanations, that, as the word Vai/s/vânara is used in co-ordination
with the term 'Self,' and as the term 'Self' alone is used in the
introductory passage ('What is our Self, what is Brahman?'),
Vai/s/vânara has to be understood in a modified sense, so as to be in
harmony with the term Self. Well, then, the pûrvapakshin rejoins, let us
suppose that Vai/s/vânara is the embodied Self which, as being an
enjoyer, is in close vicinity to the Vai/s/vânara fire,[154] (i.e. the
fire within the body,) and with which the qualification expressed by the
term, 'Measured by a span,' well agrees, since it is restricted by its
limiting condition (viz. the body and so on).--In any case it is evident
that the term Vai/s/vânara does not denote the highest Lord.
To this we make the following reply.--The word Vai/s/vânara denotes the
highest Self, on account of the distinction qualifying the two general
terms.--Although the term 'Self,' as well as the term 'Vai/s/vânara,'
has various meanings--the latter term denoting three beings while the
former denotes two--yet we observe a distinction from which we conclude
that both terms can here denote the highest Lord only; viz. in the
passage, 'Of that Vai/s/vânara Self the head is Sutejas,' &c. For it is
clear that that passage refers to the highest Lord in so far as he is
distinguished by having heaven, and so on, for his head and limbs, and
in so far as he has entered into a different state (viz. into the state
of being the Self of the threefold world); represents him, in fact, for
the purpose of meditation, as the internal Self of everything. As such
the absolute Self may be represented, because it is the cause of
everything; for as the cause virtually contains all the states belonging
to its effects, the heavenly world, and so on, may be spoken of as the
members of the highest Self.--Moreover, the result which Scripture
declares to abide in all worlds--viz. in the passage, 'He eats food in
all worlds, in all beings, in all Selfs'--is possible only if we take
the term Vai/s/vânara to denote the highest Self.--The same remark
applies to the declaration that all the sins are burned of him who has
that knowledge, 'Thus all his sins are burned,' &c. (Ch. Up. V, 24,
3).--Moreover, we meet at the beginning of the chapter with the words
'Self' and 'Brahman;' viz. in the passage, 'What is our Self, what is
Brahman?' Now these are marks of Brahman, and indicate the highest Lord
only. Hence he only can be meant by the term Vai/s/vânara.
25. (And) because that which is stated by Sm/ri/ti (i.e. the shape of
the highest Lord as described by Sm/ri/ti) is an inference (i.e. an
indicatory mark from which we infer the meaning of /S/ruti).
The highest Lord only is Vai/s/vânara, for that reason also that
Sm/ri/ti ascribes to the highest Lord only a shape consisting of the
threefold world, the fire constituting his mouth, the heavenly world his
head, &c. So, for instance, in the following passage, 'He whose mouth is
fire, whose head the heavenly world, whose navel the ether, whose feet
the earth, whose eye the sun, whose ears the regions, reverence to him
the Self of the world.' The shape described here in Sm/ri/ti allows us
to infer a /S/ruti passage on which the Sm/ri/ti rests, and thus
constitutes an inference, i.e. a sign indicatory of the word
'Vai/s/vânara' denoting the highest Lord. For, although the quoted
Sm/ri/ti passage contains a glorification[155], still even a
glorification in the form in which it there appears is not possible,
unless it has a Vedic passage to rest on.--Other Sm/ri/ti passages also
may be quoted in connexion with this Sûtra, so, for instance, the
following one, 'He whose head the wise declare to be the heavenly world,
whose navel the ether, whose eyes sun and moon, whose ears the regions,
and whose feet the earth, he is the inscrutable leader of all beings.'
26. If it be maintained that (Vai/s/vânara is) not (the highest Lord) on
account of the term (viz. Vai/s/vânara, having a settled different
meaning), &c., and on account of his abiding within (which is a
characteristic of the gastric fire); (we say) no, on account of the
perception (of the highest Lord), being taught thus (viz. in the gastric
fire), and on account of the impossibility (of the heavenly world, &c.
being the head, &c. of the gastric fire), and because they (the
Vâjasaneyins) read of him (viz. the Vai/s/vânara) as man (which term
cannot apply to the gastric fire).
Here the following objection is raised.--Vai/s/vânara cannot be the
highest Lord, on account of the term, &c., and on account of the abiding
within. The term, viz. the term Vai/s/vânara, cannot be applied to the
highest Lord, because the settled use of language assigns to it a
different sense. Thus, also, with regard to the term Agni (fire) in the
passage (/S/at. Brâ. X, 6, 1, 11), 'He is the Agni Vai/s/vânara.' The
word '&c.' (in the Sûtra) hints at the fiction concerning the three
sacred fires, the gârhapatya being represented as the heart, and so on,
of the Vai/s/vânara Self (Ch. Up. V, 18, 2[156]).--Moreover, the
passage, 'Therefore the first food which a man may take is in the place
of homa' (Ch. Up. V, 19, 1), contains a glorification of (Vai/s/vânara)
being the abode of the oblation to Prâ/n/a[157]. For these reasons we
have to understand by Vai/s/vânara the gastric fire.--Moreover,
Scripture speaks of the Vai/s/vânara as abiding within. 'He knows him
abiding within man;' which again applies to the gastric fire only.--With
reference to the averment that on account of the specifications
contained in the passage, 'His head is Sutejas,' &c., Vai/s/vânara is to
be explained as the highest Self, we (the pûrvapakshin) ask: How do you
reach the decision that those specifications, although agreeing with
both interpretations, must be assumed to refer to the highest Lord only,
and not to the gastric fire?--Or else we may assume that the passage
speaks of the elemental fire which abides within and without; for that
that fire is also connected with the heavenly world, and so on, we
understand from the mantra, 'He who with his light has extended himself
over earth and heaven, the two halves of the world, and the atmosphere'
(/Ri/g-veda Sa/m/h. X, 88, 3).--Or else the attribute of having the
heavenly world, and so on, for its members may, on account of its power,
be attributed to that divinity which has the elemental fire for its
body.--Therefore Vai/s/vânara is not the highest Lord.
To all this we reply as follows.--Your assertions are unfounded,
'because there is taught the perception in this manner.' The reasons
(adduced in the former part of the Sûtra), viz. the term, and so on, are
not sufficient to make us abandon the interpretation according to which
Vai/s/vânara is the highest Lord.--Why?--On account of perception being
taught in this manner, i.e. without the gastric fire being set aside.
For the passages quoted teach the perception of the highest Lord in the
gastric fire, analogously to such passages as 'Let a man meditate on the
mind as Brahman' (Ch. Up. III, 18, 1).--Or else they teach that the
object of perception is the highest Lord, in so far as he has the
gastric fire called Vai/s/vânara for his limiting condition; analogously
to such passages as 'He who consists of mind, whose body is breath,
whose form is light' (Ch. Up. III, 14, 2[158]). If it were the aim of
the passages about the Vai/s/vânara to make statements not concerning
the highest Lord, but merely concerning the gastric fire, there would be
no possibility of specifications such as contained in the passage 'His
head is Sutejas,' &c. That also on the assumption of Vai/s/vânara being
either the divinity of fire or the elemental fire no room is to be found
for the said specifications, we shall show under the following
Sûtra.--Moreover, if the mere gastric fire were meant, there would be
room only for a declaration that it abides within man, not that it is
man. But, as a matter of fact, the Vâjasaneyins speak of him--in their
sacred text--as man, 'This Agni Vai/s/vânara is man; he who knows this
Agni Vai/s/vânara as man-like, as abiding within man,' &c. (/S/at. Brâ.
X, 6, 1, 11). The highest Lord, on the other hand, who is the Self of
everything, may be spoken of as well as man, as abiding within
man.--Those who, in the latter part of the Sûtra, read 'man-like'
(puru-shavidham) instead of 'man' (purusham), wish to express the
following meaning: If Vai/s/vânara were assumed to be the gastric fire
only, he might be spoken of as abiding within man indeed, but not as
man-like. But the Vâjasaneyins do speak of him as man-like, 'He who
knows him as man-like, as abiding within man.'--The meaning of the term
man-like is to be concluded from the context, whence it will be seen
that, with reference to nature, it means that the highest Lord has the
heaven for his head, &c., and is based on the earth; and with reference
to man, that he forms the head, &c., and is based on the chin (of the
devout worshipper[159]).
27. For the same reasons (the Vai/s/vânara) cannot be the divinity (of
fire), or the element (of fire).
The averment that the fanciful attribution of members contained in the
passage 'His head is Sutejas,' &c. may apply to the elemental fire also
which from the mantras is seen to be connected with the heavenly world,
&c., or else to the divinity whose body is fire, on account of its
power, is refuted by the following remark: For the reasons already
stated Vai/s/vânara is neither the divinity nor the element. For to the
elemental fire which is mere heat and light the heavenly world and so on
cannot properly be ascribed as head and so on, because an effect cannot
be the Self of another effect.--Again, the heavenly world cannot be
ascribed as head, &c. to the divinity of fire, in spite of the power of
the latter; for, on the one hand, it is not a cause (but a mere effect),
and on the other hand its power depends on the highest Lord. Against all
these interpretations there lies moreover the objection founded on the
inapplicability of the term 'Self.'
28. Jaimini (declares that there is) no contradiction even on the
assumption of a direct (worship of the highest Lord as Vai/s/vânara).
Above (Sûtra 26) it has been said that Vai/s/vânara is the highest Lord,
to be meditated upon as having the gastric fire either for his outward
manifestation or for his limiting condition; which interpretation was
accepted in deference to the circumstance that he is spoken of as
abiding within--and so on.--The teacher Jaimini however is of opinion
that it is not necessary to have recourse to the assumption of an
outward manifestation or limiting condition, and that there is no
objection to refer the passage about Vai/s/vânara to the direct worship
of the highest Lord.--But, if you reject the interpretation based on the
gastric fire, you place yourself in opposition to the statement that
Vai/s/vânara abides within, and to the reasons founded on the term, &c.
(Sû. 26).--To this we reply that we in no way place ourselves in
opposition to the statement that Vai/s/vânara abides within. For the
passage, 'He knows him as man-like, as abiding within man,' does not by
any means refer to the gastric fire, the latter being neither the
general topic of discussion nor having been mentioned by name
before.--What then does it refer to?--It refers to that which forms the
subject of discussion, viz. that similarity to man (of the highest Self)
which is fancifully found in the members of man from the upper part of
the head down to the chin; the text therefore says, 'He knows him as
man-like, as abiding within man,' just as we say of a branch that it
abides within the tree[160].--Or else we may adopt another
interpretation and say that after the highest Self has been represented
as having the likeness to man as a limiting condition, with regard to
nature as well as to man, the passage last quoted ('He knows him as
abiding within man') speaks of the same highest Self as the mere witness
(sâkshin; i.e. as the pure Self, non-related to the limiting
conditions).--The consideration of the context having thus shown that
the highest Self has to be resorted to for the interpretation of the
passage, the term 'Vai/s/vânara' must denote the highest Self in some
way or other. The word 'Vi/s/vânara' is to be explained either as 'he
who is all and man (i.e. the individual soul),' or 'he to whom souls
belong' (in so far as he is their maker or ruler), and thus denotes the
highest Self which is the Self of all. And the form 'Vai/s/vânara' has
the same meaning as 'Vi/s/vânara,' the taddhita-suffix, by which the
former word is derived from the latter, not changing the meaning; just
as in the case of râkshasa (derived from rakshas), and vâyasa (derived
from vayas).--The word 'Agni' also may denote the highest Self if we
adopt the etymology agni=agra/n/î, i.e. he who leads in front.--As the
Gârhapatya-fire finally, and as the abode of the oblation to breath the
highest Self may be represented because it is the Self of all.
But, if it is assumed that Vai/s/vânara denotes the highest Self, how
can Scripture declare that he is measured by a span?--On the explanation
of this difficulty we now enter.