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

[SŪ. 4. 2 20. ADH. 11.] VEDĀNTA-KAUSTUBHA 833 are to be remembered. Hence there is no fixed rule with regard to a particular time. Here ends the second quarter of the fourth chapter in the Vedānta- pārijāta-saurabha, an interpretation of the Śārīraka- mīmāṁsā texts by the reverend Nimbārka. Vedānta-kaustubha An objection may be raised. The passage: “At what time the ascetics departing return not, and also when they return, that time I shall tell you, O best of the Bhāratas. Fire, light, the day, the bright fortnight, the six months of the northern progress of the sun,— departing there the knowers of Brahman go to Brahman. Smoke, the night, likewise the dark fortnight, the six months of the northern progress of the sun,—the ascetics departing there, having attained the Light of the moon, return. The white and the dark,—these two are thought to be the eternal paths of the world. By the one, one goes who returns not; by the other, he returns again” (Gītā 8.23–26), enjoins a special time as the cause of the non-return of those who are devoted to Brahman, or as the cause of the return of those who are devoted to works. Hence it is not reasonable to hold that one who dies during the southern progress of the sun attains Brahman We reply: “No”, since here the path called the ‘path of gods’ and the path called the ‘path of fathers’ “are declared to the ascetics”; “and” since “these two are to be remembered”, i.e. are to be remem- bered as the subsidiary part of knowledge and the subsidiary part of work, in accordance with the conclusion: ‘ “Knowing these two paths, O Pārtha, an ascetic is never deluded” ’ (Gītā 8.27). In the Smṛti text, “At which time”, etc., the term ‘time’ means the path, connected with the presiding deities of time; and accordingly, the phrase “At which time” means ‘in which path, connected with the presiding deities of day and so on who are conductors of the soul’, it being im- possible for fire and smoke to be time. Hence there is no fixed rule with regard to time. Therefore it is established that even a knower who dies during the southern progress of the sun surely attains Brah- man. Here ends the section entitled “The southern progress of the sun” (11).