Part 3

46. It has been heard of old that all this universe proceeded from the lotus of the navel of the Lord; hence is it established that be has a body, for how can there be a navel without a body?

47. The body of God is very pure,--to be enjoyed by all the senses, as being richly endowed with the six qualities [Footnote: These six qualities, according to the Commentator on the Bhâgavata P. i. 3. 36, are sovereignty, knowledge, glory, prosperity, dispassion, and virtue; a different list is given in the Sarva Darš. S. p. 54, l. 22 (but cf. p. 69, l. 18). See also _infra_ in šl. 95.],--and to be discovered by means of all the Vedas,--Gangâ verily is the water wherewith he washes his feet.

48. Whenever by the influence of time there comes the increase of evil and the diminution of right, then the adorable Lord accomplishes the preservation of the good and the destruction of the wicked.

49. The Lord is said to be twofold, as the Incarnation and He who becomes incarnate; so too the souls are twofold, as divided into faithful and faithless.

50. Now some say that the personal soul is only the reflection of the Supreme; but their opinion does not at all hold, since it cannot be established.

51. For how could there arise a reflection of that Infinite and stainless one? and how could an insentient [reflection] enjoy the pain and pleasure arising from the merit and demerit declared in the Veda?

52. There may indeed be a reflection of that which is limited; but how shall there be one of Him whose attribute is infinity?

53. Râmânuja, the foremost of the learned, condemned this theory of an original and its reflection; the fact that this doctrine is not accepted by the learned, will not make it seem more plausible.

54. There is an eternal division between the two, from the words of the Veda, "two birds;" [Footnote: Rig V. i. 164, 20, "Two birds associated together, two friends, take refuge in the same tree; one of them eats the sweet fig; the other, abstaining from food, merely looks on."] from the mention there of "two friends," how can there be identity between them?

55. I become Brahman, that is, I cease to have mundane existence through beholding the soul in Brahman; the result of this would be the abolition of sorrow, etc., but in no way absolute Oneness.

56. I become Brahman also through beholding Brahman in the soul [Footnote: Another reading is _brahma.ny âtmanirîksha.nât]; the result would be the abolition of His being out of sight [Footnote: I.e. it would be always videre videntem_], but in no way Oneness.

57. It must not be said that by continued meditation with intent thought a man becomes Brahman; there will only enter into him a little merit; as we see indeed in the case of worms, bees, and the like [Footnote: Cf. Hitopadeša, Introd. šl. 45.];

58. By devotedly worshipping Brâhmans without ceasing, a Šûdra will never become a Brâhman; there may enter into him a little merit, but one of the Šûdra caste will never become a Brâhman.

59. The venerable author of the Aphorisms himself established a duality when he spoke of the application of the terms "object" and "agent" [Footnote: In Vedânta S. i. 2. 4, it is shown that certain passages in the Upanishads refer to Brahman and not the embodied soul, "because of the application therein of the terms object and agent;" as _e.g. in the passage of the Chhândogya Upan. iii. 14, "I shall attain it when I have departed from hence." These words imply an agent who attains and also an object which is attained, i.e._ Brahman. Ša"nkara in his comment on i. 2. 11 illustrates this by the passage in the Katha Upanishad iii. 1, "The two, drinking the due reward from their works, in this world entered the cave, in the highest place of the supreme soul" (sc. the heart)]; and thus has it been explained by the author of the commentary by quoting passages of the Veda which imply duality, as that which says "the two entered the cave."

60. The soul is also shown to be different [from Brahman] by the evidence of Šm.riti [Footnote: Cf. Vedânta Sûtras i. 2. 6, where Ša"nkara quotes the passage from the Bhagavad Gîtâ (xviii. 61), "The Lord of all beings abides in the region of the heart,--causing all beings to revolve by his illusion as though mounted on a machine."]; thus their difference is proved to be essential. If it were not so, how could the Commentator have used such an expression as "the worshipper" and "the worshipped" [Footnote: He uses this very expression _upâsyopâsakabhâva_ in his Comment. on i. 2. 4.]?

61. I am sometimes happy, sometimes miserable; He, the supreme Soul, is always essentially happy. Such is the difference,--then how can there be identity between these two different substances?

62. He is eternally self-luminous and unobscured,-- intensely pure, the one witness of the world; not so is the individual soul,--thus a thunderbolt falls on the tree of the theory of Identity.

63. For those who maintain the identity of the individual and supreme soul, the hypothesis of a _dvandva compound [Footnote: I.e. in the word jîvâtmânau] is precluded; or they bring forward such words as d.rishadupala as parallel cases [Footnote: I suppose that this means that the dvandva compound d.rishadupala has some analogy to one like jîvâtmânau, which involves identity, as the upper and lower millstone form one instrument; but there (in accordance with Pâ.n. 2. 2. 34, vârtt.) the less important word meaning the upper and smaller stone (upalâ) is placed last (cf. 2. 2. 31)]; the dvandva_ is only consistent with "difference," but in no way with "identity."

64. Where identity is the meaning, there arises the _karmadhâraya compound,--for [such a karmadhâraya as] nîlotpala "the blue-lotus" is used as implying that the two members of the compound refer to the same subject [Footnote: But jîvâtmânau is a dvandva, not a karmadhâraya_ compound.]

65. As there are many passages in Šruti such as that which says "food is Brahman," [Footnote: Brihad Âra.nyaka Upan. v. 12. 1.] so too this passage "I am Brahman" is to be understood as meaning worship [Footnote: _I.e._ this is one of the modes of worshipping Brahman by meditating on him in some lower visible form, not as really expressing his real nature.]

66. The doctrine of Identity is not true; wherever it appears to be declared in Šruti, all those passages are to be taken as only meaning worship.

67. There are many sentences in the ancient Veda which speak for non-identity as also for identity; having expelled envy and discussed the truth, let the wise declare that which each thinks wholesome.

68. O soul, bewildered by a deceived opinion, drive far from thy mouth these words "I am Brahman"; how canst thou be That, O thou who art utterly at the mercy of fate, plunged as thou art in the great ocean of mundane existence hard to be crossed!

69. He who is the beloved of Lakshmi, the ambrosia-ocean, full of manifest supreme joy; the water of whose feet is Gangâ, worthy to be worshipped by Rudra and the other gods; who before creation created all instantaneously by a movement of his brow,--how canst thou say, O soul, "I am He,"--thou who art a poor beggar, not a king.

70. O slow of mind, how canst thou say, I am He with whom are filled all the vast stores of this universe in its entirety? Collect thy faculties calmly in thy heart and consider thine own power; can a host of fierce world-supporting elephants enter into the belly of a gnat?

71. Whose art thou? whence art thou come? how is the course of this mundane bondage? Ponder this matter in thy heart and forsake the path of the erring. Say not "I am He"; but worship Hari continually in the relation of adorer and adored; by this thou mayst attain the happy journey, but otherwise thou wilt assuredly fall.

72. Great is the misery which thou hast experienced, O Soul, while dwelling in the womb in various births, and thou hast wandered again and again in heaven or in hell; this theory "I am He" is an error of thine,--worship thou Hari's lotus feet; thou art His worshipper, He is the adorable, for He is the lord of the three worlds.

73. Renouncing the so-called theory of identity, forthwith devote thyself to duality, if there now dwells in thy heart a supreme feeling of faith in Hari; and, having learned the doctrine in Nârada's Pañcharâtra and everywhere else, let all the hymns of the Vaish.nava sacred books be thoroughly examined, as is truly for thy good.