III, 3, 38

38. For the True and so on are one and the same (vidyā).

The text of the Vājasaneyaka, after having enjoined the knowledge of the True, together with a meditation on the syllables of its name ('Whosoever knows this great glorious first-born as the true Brahman,' &c., Bṛ. Up. V, 4, 1), continues, 'Now what is the True, that is the Āditya, the person that dwells in yonder orb, and the person in the right eye' (V, 5, 2).--The doubt here arises whether the text enjoins two vidyās of the True or one only.

Two, the pūrvapakṣin maintains. For the text declares two different results, one in the earlier passage, 'He conquers these worlds' (V, 4, 1); the other one later on. 'He destroys evil and leaves it' (V, 5, 3). And what our opponent may call a reference to the subject-matter under discussion,^[1] is merely due to the circumstance of the object of meditation being the same (in the two vidyās).

To this we make the following reply.--There is only one vidyā of the True, because the clause, 'That which is the True,' &c., refers back to that True which is treated of in V, 4.--But has not the pūrvapakṣin shown that the clause alluded to can be accounted for even on the supposition of there being two vidyās?--The reasoning of the pūrvapakṣin, we reply, would be admissible only if the separateness of the two vidyās were established by some other clear and undoubted reason; in our ease, however, there is a general possibility of both (viz. of the vidyās being separate or not), and the very circumstance that the mentioned clause contains a back reference to the True spoken of in V, 4, determines us to conclude that there is only one vidyā of the True.--To the remark that there must be two vidyās because the text states two different results, we reply that the statement of a second result merely has the purpose of glorifying the new instruction given about the True, viz. that its secret names are ahar and aham. Moreover, as in the case under discussion, the fruit of the vidyā has really to be supplied from its arthavāda part^[2], and as there is unity of vidyā, all those fruits which the text states in connexion with the single parts of the vidyā are to be combined and put in connexion with the vidyā taken as a whole.--The conclusion therefore is that the text records only one vidyā of the True, distinguished by such and such details, and that hence all the qualities mentioned, such as Truth and so on, are to be comprehended in one act of meditation.

Some commentators are of opinion that the above Sūtra refers (not to the question whether Bṛ. Up. V, 4 and V, 5 constitute one vidyā but) to the question whether the Vājasaneyaka-passage about the persons in the sun and in the eye, and the similar Chāndogya-passage (I, 6, 6, 'Now that golden person who is seen within the sun,' &c.) form one vidyā or not. They conclude that they do so, and that hence truth and the other qualities mentioned in the Vājasaneyaka are to be combined with the Chāndogya-text also.--But this interpretation of the Sūtra appears objectionable. For the Chāndogya-vidyā refers to the udgītha and is thus connected with sacrificial acts, marks of which connexion are exhibited in the beginning, the middle, and the end of the vidyā. Thus we read at the beginning, 'The Ṛc is the earth, the Sāman is fire;' in the middle, 'Ṛc and Sāman are his joints and therefore he is udgītha;' and in the end, 'He who knowing this sings a Sāman' (Ch. Up. I, 6, 1; 8; I, 7, 7). In the Vājasaneyaka, on the other hand, there is nothing to connect the vidyā with sacrificial acts. As therefore the subject-matter is different, the vidyās are separate and the details of the two are to be held apart.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Viz. the clause in V, 5, 2, 'That which is the true,' which apparently--or really--connects the vidyā of V, 5 with that of V, 4.

[2]:

For the vidyā contains no explicit statement that a man desirous of such and such a fruit is to meditate on the True in such and such a way.--That in cases where the fruit is not stated in a vidhi-passage it must be supplied from the arthavāda-passages, is taught in the Pū. Mī. Sū. IV, 3, eighth adhikaraṇa.