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

674 VEDĀNTA-KAUSTUBHA [SŪ. 3. 3. 42. ADH. 19 ] regularly Now, apprehending the objection, viz. that just as the meditations on the subsidiary parts are independent of the whole, so the meditations on the attributes are independent of the meditation on the substratum of attributes—it is said. Under the Dahara-vidyā 1, after having first stated the small ether, i.e. the soul, the substratum of the attributes, as the object to be meditated on thus: “Now, those who depart having known the self here” (Chānd. 8 1 6), the text goes on to set forth separately once more the meditations on the attributes of being free from sins and the rest too thus “And these true desires” (Chānd. 8.1.6). Here the doubt is as to whether while meditating on an attribute, the small ether, the substratum of the attributes, too is to be meditated on as possessed of that particular attribute, or not On the sugges- tion: As the small ether can very well be meditated on at all times as qualified by the attributes of being free from sins and so on, during the meditation on the attributes, the meditation on Him as qualified by those particular attributes is not to be repeated We reply. “As in the case of offering”, the meditation on the small ether, the substratum of attributes, as qualified by those parti- cular attributes, is to be repeated with the meditations on those attributes themselves. The sense is this. Although those attributes like freedom from sins and so on have only one substratum, viz. the small ether, yet in accordance with the text: “Free from sins, without- old age” (Chānd. 8.1.5) and so on, which intends to designate its (different) forms as qualified by those particular attributes, it is to be meditated on as diverse. Just as in the case of the sacrifice comprising three sacrificial cakes, laid down in the text. “Let one offer the sacri- ficial cake on eleven potsherds to Indra, the king, to Indra, the over-lord, to Indra, the self-ruler” (Tait. Saṃ. 2.3.6 2), although the same Indra is qualified by the attributes of kingship and the rest, yet as the attributes of kingship, over-lordship and self-rulership are different from one another, the god himself is taken to have different forms as qualified by each particular attribute, and as such the “offerings” of the sacrificial cakes are repeated,—so is the case 1 Vide Chānd. 8.1 ff. See V.K. 3.3.1, for further explanation. 2 The text continues to designate these three epithets thus “Indra, the king is this (earth); Indra, the over-lord, is this (atmosphere); Indra, the self- ruler is the yonder (heaven)—. There are three cakes, these worlds are three”.