{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sbe48/sbe48093.htm","path":"hin/sbe48/sbe48093.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48093.htm","text":"27. Should it be said that it is not so, on account of the word, &c., and on account of the abiding within; we say, no; on account of meditation being taught thus, on account of impossibility; and because they read of him as person.\nAn objection is raised. Vaisv\u00e2nara cannot be ascertained to be the highest Self, because, on the account of the text and of the abiding within, we can understand by the Vaisv\u00e2nara in our text the intestinal fire also. The text to which we refer occurs in the Vaisv\u00e2nara-vidy\u00e2 of the V\u00e2gasaneyins, 'This one is the Agni Vaisv\u00e2nara,' where the two words 'Agni' and 'Vaisv\u00e2nara' are exhibited in\nco-ordination. And in the section under discussion the passage, 'the heart is the G\u00e2rhapatya fire, the mind the Anv\u00e2h\u00e2rya-pakana fire, the mouth the \u00c2havan\u00eeya fire' (Kh. Up. V, 18, 2), represents the Vaisv\u00e2nara in so far as abiding within the heart and so on as constituting the triad of sacred fires. Moreover the text, 'The first food which a man may take is in the place of Soma. And he who offers that first oblation should offer it to Pr\u00e2na' (V, 19, 1), intimates that Vaisv\u00e2nara is the abode of the offering to Pr\u00e2na. In the same way the V\u00e2gasaneyins declare that Vaisv\u00e2nara abides within man, viz. in the passage 'He who knows this Agni Vaisv\u00e2nara shaped like a man abiding within man.' As thus Vaisv\u00e2nara appears in co-ordination with the word 'Agni,' is represented as the triad of sacred fires, is said to be the abode of the oblation to Breath, and to abide within man, he must be viewed as the intestinal fire, and it is therefore not true that he can be identified with the highest Self only.\nThis objection is set aside by the S\u00fbtra. It is not so 'on account of meditation (on the highest Self) being taught thus,' i.e. as the text means to teach that the highest Brahman which, in the manner described before, has the three worlds for its body should be meditated upon as qualified by the intestinal fire which (like other beings) constitutes Brahman's body. For the word 'Agni' denotes not only the intestinal fire, but also the highest Self in so far as qualified by the intestinal fire.--But how is this to be known?--'On account of impossibility;' i.e. because it is impossible that the mere intestinal fire should have the three worlds for its body. The true state of the case therefore is that the word Agni, which is understood to denote the intestinal fire, when appearing in co-ordination with the term Vaisv\u00e2nara represented as having the three worlds for his body, denotes (not the intestinal fire, but) the highest Self as qualified by that fire viewed as forming the body of the Self. Thus the Lord also says, 'As Vaisv\u00e2nara fire I abide in the body of living creatures and, being assisted by breath inspired and expired, digest the fourfold food' (Bha G\u00ee. XIV, 15). 'As Vaisv\u00e2nara fire' here\nmeans 'embodied in the intestinal fire.'--The Kh\u00e2ndogya text under discussion enjoins meditation on the highest Self embodied in the Vaisv\u00e2nara fire.--Moreover the V\u00e2gasaneyins read of him, viz. the Vaisv\u00e2nara, as man or person, viz. in the passage 'That Agni Vaisv\u00e2nara is the person' (Sa. Br\u00e2. X, 6, 1, 11). The intestinal fire by itself cannot be called a person; unconditioned personality belongs to the highest Self only. Compare 'the thousand-headed person' (Ri. Samh.), and 'the Person is all this' (Sve. Up. III, 15).","title":"SBE 48: The Vedanta-Sutras with commentary by Ramanuja, George Thibaut, tr.: Second P\u00e2da: 27. Should it be said that it is not so, on account of the word...","type":"page"}