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

[sū. 1 3. 30 ADH. 7.] VEDĀNTA-KAUSTUBHA 189 i.e prior to creation; and that, viz. the cause, denoted by the term ‘existent’, is ‘one only, without a second’. He is without an equal or a superior, indicated respectively by the words ‘only’ and ‘without a second’, and He is to be known also as manifold by nature indeed, since He is the substratum of the sentient and the non-sentient which are His powers. Dissolution means the existence of the effect in the cause in a subtle form; while creation means simply the manifestation of such an effect. At the end of dissolution, the omniscient and all- knowing Lord, having wished first ‘“May I be many”’ ((Chānd. 6.2.3, Tait. 2.6.1); having then separated the mass of enjoying souls and the objects of enjoyment, so long merged in Him as His subtle powers; having created all objects from the mahat down to the four- faced Brahmā as He did before, having manifested the eternally existent Vedas, having taught them mentally to Brahmā, and having deputed him to the creation of the Universe, consisting of gods, men and the rest, as it was before, Himself exists as his (Brahmā's) inner soul, as declared by the text ‘Having created it, he entered into that very thing’ (Tait. 2 6 1). Brahmā too, who has attained lordship through His grace, having apprehended their forms from the Vedic words, creates gods and the rest. As such, there is no contradiction even with regard to the recurrence,—this is the sense. Just in this consists the non-human origin of the Veda, it having an eternally existent form like the Supreme Brahman. And its eternity means that one, having remembered a particular order of succession, through the impressions generated in his mind by his prior recitations of the Veda in a fixed order, should recite the Veda in that very order.¹ If it be asked: Whence is this known: We reply: “From percep- tion and from Smṛti”. “Perception” means that which destroys the darkness of the heart, i e. Scripture, viz. ‘He who first creates Brahmā and he who, forsooth, delivers the Vedas to him, to that Deity, who is the light of self-knowledge, I, desirous of release, take shelter’, (Śvet. 6.18), similarly: ‘The creator fashioned, as he did before, the sun and the moon, the heaven, the earth and the ether, and then the sky’ (Rg. V. 10.190.3). There is a Smṛti passage as well, viz “Then ¹ That is, the Veda is said to be apauruseya or of non-human origin, and nitya or eternal. Now, the first means that the Veda is eternally existent, and is simply revealed, and not created, at the time of each new creation. The second means that it is recited in exactly the same order of succession in different ages all throughout.