the (regular performance of the) agnihotra only, and speaking
the truth is mentioned merely as a special attribute of that special
Agnihotrin. So our passage also ('But in reality he is an ativadin who
makes a statement, &c. by means of the True') does not intimate that the
quality of being an ativadin depends on speaking the truth, but merely
expresses that speaking the truth is a special attribute of him who
knows the vital air; while the quality of being an ativadin must be
considered to depend on the knowledge of the vital air.--This objection
we rebut by the remark that it involves an abandonment of the direct
meaning of the sacred text. For from the text, as it stands, we
understand that the quality of being an ativadin depends on speaking the
truth; the sense being: An ativadin is he who is an ativadin by means of
the True. The passage does not in anyway contain a eulogisation of the
knowledge of the vital air. It could be connected with the latter only
on the ground of general subject-matter (prakara/n/a)[172]; which would
involve an abandonment of the direct meaning of the text in favour of
prakara/n/a[173].--Moreover, the particle but ('But in reality he is,'
&c.), whose purport is to separate (what follows) from the
subject-matter of what precedes, would not agree (with the pra/n/a
explanation). The following passage also, 'But we must desire to know
the True' (VII, 16), which presupposes a new effort, shows that a new
topic is going to be entered upon.--For these reasons we have to
consider the statement about the ativadin in the same light as we should
consider the remark--made in a conversation which previously had turned
on the praise of those who study one Veda--that he who studies the four
Vedas is a great Brahma/n/a; a remark which we should understand to be
laudatory of persons different from those who study one Veda, i.e. of
those who study all the four Vedas. Nor is there any reason to assume
that a new topic can be introduced in the form of question and answer
only; for that the matter propounded forms a new topic is sufficiently
clear from the circumstance that no connexion can be established between
it and the preceding topic. The succession of topics in the chapter
under discussion is as follows: Narada at first listens to the
instruction which Sanatkumara gives him about various matters, the last
of which is Pra/n/a, and then becomes silent. Thereupon Sanatkumara
explains to him spontaneously (w