is always united with the effects of
Brahman, and since an unmodified Brahman does not exist (on that
hypothesis). Moreover, the possibility of Brahman becoming the object of
perception by means of the senses is denied while its effects may thus
be perceived. For these reasons the existence of an unmodified Brahman
has to be admitted.--Nor do we violate those texts which declare Brahman
to be without parts; we rather admit Brahman to be without parts just
because Scripture reveals it. For Brahman which rests exclusively on the
holy texts, and regarding which the holy texts alone are
authoritative--not the senses, and so on--must be accepted such as the
texts proclaim it to be. Now those texts declare, on the one hand, that
not the entire Brahman passes over into its effects, and, on the other
hand, that Brahman is without parts. Even certain ordinary things such
as gems, spells, herbs, and the like possess powers which, owing to
difference of time, place, occasion, and so on, produce various opposite
effects, and nobody unaided by instruction is able to find out by mere
reflection the number of these powers, their favouring conditions, their
objects, their purposes, &c.; how much more impossible is it to conceive
without the aid of Scripture the true nature of Brahman with its powers
unfathomable by thought! As the Pura/n/a says: 'Do not apply reasoning
to what is unthinkable! The mark of the unthinkable is that it is above
all material causes[304].' Therefore the cognition of what is
supersensuous is based on the holy texts only.

But--our opponent will say--even the holy texts cannot make us
understand what is contradictory. Brahman, you say, which is without
parts undergoes a change, but not the entire Brahman. If Brahman is
without parts, it does either not change at all or it changes in its
entirety. If, on the other hand, it be said that it changes partly and
persists partly, a break is effected in its nature, and from that it
follows that it consists of parts. It is true that in matters connected
with action (as, for instance, in the case of the two Vedic injunctions
'at the atiratra he is to take the sho/d/a/s/in-cup,' and 'at the
atiratra he is not to take the sho/d/a/s/in-cup') any contradiction
which may present itself to the understanding is removed by the optional
adoption of one of the two alternatives presented as action is dependent
on man; but in the case under discussion the adoption of one of the
alte