sense may be fully ascertained--We agree. But you will have to admit
that for the very same reason we must undertake a systematic enquiry
into religious duty!

[FOOTNOTE 4:1. 'Bhagavat' denotes primarily the Lord, the divinity;
secondarily any holy person.]

[FOOTNOTE 5:1. The first six books of the Purva Mimamsa-sutras give
rules for the fundamental forms of the sacrifice; while the last six
books teach how these rules are to be applied to the so-called modified
forms.]




THE SMALL PURVAPAKSHA.

But--a further objection is urged--as that which has to precede the
systematic enquiry into Brahman we should assign something which that
enquiry necessarily presupposes. The enquiry into the nature of duty,
however, does not form such a prerequisite, since a consideration of the
Vedanta-texts may be undertaken by any one who has read those texts,
even if he is not acquainted with works.--But in the Vedanta-texts there
are enjoined meditations on the Udgitha and the like which are matters
auxiliary to works; and such meditations are not possible for him who is
not acquainted with those works!--You who raise this objection clearly
are ignorant of what kind of knowledge the Sariraka Mimamsa is concerned
with! What that sastra aims at is to destroy completely that wrong
knowledge which is the root of all pain, for man, liable to birth, old
age, and death, and all the numberless other evils connected with