वेदान्त पारिजात सौरभ (भगवद् निम्बार्काचार्य - द्वैताद्वैत वेदान्त ब्रह्मसूत्र भाष्य सटीक)

[SŪ. 1. 3. 14 164 VEDĀNTA-KAUSTUBHA ADH. 5.] Brahman,—is a "small", i.e. a tiny 'lotus', viz the heart, well-known from Scripture, that very thing is a chamber as it were. In that same chamber, there is a "small", i e. a tiny, or one who has manifested himself in a subtle form in accordance with the wish of his own devotees who are devoted to none else, 'ether', i.e one who is pervasive by nature. In that heart-lotus, the small Brahman who is denoted by the term 'ether' 'should be searched for', i e. should be discriminated as different from the enquirer, as well as from the body; and 'should be enquired into', i.e. should be meditated on repeatedly through the 'hearing' of the Vedānta. Here a doubt arises, viz whether by the term 'small ether' the elemental ether is to be understood, or the Highest Self. If it be suggested: The elemental ether, because the term 'ether' is well- known to denote the elemental ether, and because the term 'small' too, as implying a subtle object, may be applied to it It cannot be said that in the text: 'As large is this ether, so large is the ether within the heart' (Chānd. 8.1.3), one and the same thing (viz. the ether) cannot reasonably be both the object compared and the object (upa- meya and upamāna) with which it is,—because it can appropriately be so on the ground of the distinction of the external and the internal.¹ Or, let the embodied soul, like the point of a spoke only, be the small ether, because it, too, is known from the passage: 'Now this serenity (i.e. serene being) having arisen from this body' (Chānd. 8 3.4). Being atomic by nature, it can be fittingly termed 'small', and, being undefiled by the body, the sense-organs and the rest, it can be fittingly compared to the ether ²— We reply. "The small", i.e. the small ether, is none but the Highest Self. Why? "On account of what follows", i.e. on account of the reasons contained in the concluding text, 1.e. on account of the peculiar qualities of the Highest Self, viz. 'being comparable to the ether', 'being the support of all worlds, beginning with the earth', 'being the soul', 'being free from sins'—and the rest. Thus, in the passage: 'As large is this ether, so large is that ether within the ¹ That is, as the external ether it is the upamāna, as the internal ether the upameya Hence no contradiction is involved ² That is, as the ether remains aloof from the impurities of the world, though connected with it, so the soul remains aloof from the impurities of the body and the rest, though connected with them. Hence the latter may be compared with the former.