Sutra 3.3.53

53. But those (meditations) which are connected with members (of sacrifices) are not (restricted) to (particular) śākhās, but rather (belong) to all śākhās.

There are certain meditations connected with certain constituent elements of sacrifices-as e.g. 'Let a man meditate on the syllable Om (as) the Udgītha '(Kh. Up. I, 1, 1); 'Let a man meditate on the fivefold Saman as the five worlds' (Kh. Up. II, 2, 1), etc. The question here arises whether those meditations are restricted to the members of those śākhās in whose texts they are mentioned; or to be connected with the Udgītha, and so on, in all śākhās. There is here a legitimate ground for doubt, in so far as, although the general agreement of all Vedānta-texts is established, the Udgītha, and so on, are different in each Veda since the accents differ in the different Vedas—The Pūrvapakshin declares that those meditations are limited each to its particular śākhā; for, he says, the injunction 'Let him meditate on the Udgītha' does indeed, verbally, refer to the Udgītha in general; but as what stands nearest to this injunction is the special Udgītha of the śākhā, in whose text this injunction occurs, and which shares the peculiarities of accent characteristic of that śākhā, we decide that the meditation is enjoined on members of that śākhā only.—The Sūtra sets this opinion aside. The injunction of meditations of this type is valid for all śākhās, since the text expressly connects them with the Udgītha in general. They therefore hold good wherever there is an Udgītha. The individual Udgīthas of the several śākhās are indeed distinguished by different accentuation; but the general statement, 'Let him meditate on the Udgītha.' suggests to the mind not any particular Udgītha, but the Udgītha in general, and hence there is no reason to restrict the meditation to a particular śākhā. From the principle moreover that all śākhās teach the same doctrine, it follows that the sacrifice enjoined in the different śākhās is one only; and hence there is no reason to hold that the Udgītha suggested by the injunction of the meditation is a particular one. For the Udgītha is only an element in the sacrifice, and the sacrifice is one and the same. The meditations are not therefore limited to particular śākhās.