self-sufficient, ever pure, intelligent and free, pure knowledge,
absolute bliss. From the devout meditation on this Brahman there results
as its fruit, final release, which, although not to be discerned in the
ordinary way, is discerned by means of the /s/âstra. If, on the other
hand, the Vedânta-texts were considered to have no reference to
injunctions of actions, but to contain statements about mere
(accomplished) things, just as if one were saying 'the earth comprises
seven dvipas,' 'that king is marching on,' they would be purportless,
because then they could not possibly be connected with something to be
shunned or endeavoured after.--Perhaps it will here be objected that
sometimes a mere statement about existent things has a purpose, as, for
instance, the affirmation, 'This is a rope, not a snake,' serves the
purpose of removing the fear engendered by an erroneous opinion, and
that so likewise the Vedânta-passages making statements about the
non-transmigrating Self, have a purport of their own (without reference
to any action), viz. in so far as they remove the erroneous opinion of
the Self being liable to transmigration.--We reply that this might be so
if just as the mere hearing of the true nature of the rope dispels the
fear caused by the imagined snake, so the mere hearing of the true
nature of Brahman would dispel the erroneous notion of one's being
subject to transmigration. But this is not the case; for we observe that
even men to whom the true nature of Brahman has been stated continue to
be affected by pleasure, pain, and the other qualities attaching to the
transmigratory condition. Moreover, we see from the passage, /Bri/. Up.
II, 4, 5, 'The Self is to be heard, to be considered, to be reflected
upon,' that consideration and reflection have to follow the mere
hearing. From all this it results that the sâstra can be admitted as a
means of knowing Brahman in so far only as the latter is connected with
injunctions.