on,
of the Vai/s/vanara Self (Ch. Up. V, 18, 2[156]).--Moreover, the
passage, 'Therefore the first food which a man may take is in the place
of homa' (Ch. Up. V, 19, 1), contains a glorification of (Vai/s/vanara)
being the abode of the oblation to Pra/n/a[157]. For these reasons we
have to understand by Vai/s/vanara the gastric fire.--Moreover,
Scripture speaks of the Vai/s/vanara as abiding within. 'He knows him
abiding within man;' which again applies to the gastric fire only.--With
reference to the averment that on account of the specifications
contained in the passage, 'His head is Sutejas,' &c., Vai/s/vanara is to
be explained as the highest Self, we (the purvapakshin) ask: How do you
reach the decision that those specifications, although agreeing with
both interpretations, must be assumed to refer to the highest Lord only,
and not to the gastric fire?--Or else we may assume that the passage
speaks of the elemental fire which abides within and without; for that
that fire is also connected with the heavenly world, and so on, we
understand from the mantra, 'He who with his light has extended himself
over earth and heaven, the two halves of the world, and the atmosphere'
(/Ri/g-veda Sa/m/h. X, 88, 3).--Or else the attribute of having the
heavenly world, and so on, for its members may, on account of its power,
be attributed to that divinity which has the elemental fire for its
body.--Therefore Vai/s/vanara is not the highest Lord.

To all this we reply as follows.--Your assertions are unfounded,
'because there is taught the perception in this manner.' The reasons
(adduced in the former part of the Sutra), viz. the term, and so on, are
not sufficient to make us abandon the interpretation according to which
Vai/s/vanara is the highest Lord.--Why?--On account of perception being
taught in this manner, i.e. without the gastric fire being set aside.
For the passages quoted teach the perception of the highest Lord in the
gastric fire, analogously to such passages as 'Let a man meditate on the
mind as Brahman' (Ch. Up. III, 18, 1).--Or else they teach that the
object of perception is the highest Lord, in so far as he has the
gastric fire called Vai/s/vanara for his limiting condition; analogously
to such passages as 'He who consists of mind, whose body is breath,
whose form is light' (Ch. Up. III, 14, 2[158]). If it were the aim of
the passages about the Vai/s/vanara to make statements not concerning
the highest Lord, but mer