sing individual soul whose body is the sun. With that Ruler within
we have to identify the person within the sun, according to the tenet of
the sameness of purport of all Vedanta-texts. It thus remains a settled
conclusion that the passage under discussion conveys instruction about
the highest Lord.

22. The aka/s/a, i.e. ether (is Brahman) on account of characteristic
marks (of the latter being mentioned).

In the Chandogya (I, 9) the following passage is met with, 'What is the
origin of this world?' 'Ether,' he replied. 'For all these beings take
their rise from the ether only, and return into the ether. Ether is
greater than these, ether is their rest.'--Here the following doubt
arises. Does the word 'ether' denote the highest Brahman or the
elemental ether?--Whence the doubt?--Because the word is seen to be used
in both senses. Its use in the sense of 'elemental ether' is well
established in ordinary as well as in Vedic speech; and, on the other
hand, we see that it is sometimes used to denote Brahman, viz. in cases
where we ascertain, either from some complementary sentence or from the
fact of special qualities being mentioned, that Brahman is meant. So,
for instance, Taitt. Up. II, 7, 'If that bliss existed not in the
ether;' and Ch. Up. VIII, 14, 'That which is called ether is the
revealer of all forms and names; that within which forms and names
are[117] that is Brahman.' Hence the doubt.--Which sense is then to be
adopted in our case?--The sense of elemental ether, the purvapakshin
replies; because this sense belongs to the word more commonly, and
therefore presents itself to the mind more readily. The word 'ether'
cannot be taken in both senses equally, because that would involve a
(faulty) attribution of several meanings to one and the same word. Hence
the term 'ether' applies to Brahman in a secondary (metaphorical) sense
only; on account of Brahman being in many of its attributes, such as all
pervadingness and the like, similar to ether. The rule is, that when the
primary sense of a word is possible, the word must not be taken in a
secondary sense. And in the passage under discussion only the primary
sense of the word 'ether' is admissible. Should it be objected that, if
we refer the passage under discussion to the elemental ether, a
complementary passage ('for all these beings take their rise from the
ether only, &c.') cannot be satisfactorily accounted for; we reply that
the elemental ether also may be r