y of the Self is the real
purport of the /s/astra's teaching, the Sutrakara declares, for
instance, in I, 1, 30[190]. The refutation of the reproach of futility
raised against the injunctions of works has already been set forth by
us, on the ground of the distinction between such persons as possess
full knowledge, and such as do not.

20. And the reference (to the individual soul) has a different meaning.

The alleged reference to the individual soul which has been pointed out
(by the purvapakshin) in the passage complementary to the passage about
the small ether ('Now that serene being,' &c., VIII, 3, 4) teaches, if
the small ether is interpreted to mean the highest Lord, neither the
worship of the individual soul nor any qualification of the subject
under discussion (viz. the small ether), and is therefore devoid of
meaning.--On that account the Sutra declares that the reference has
another meaning, i.e. that the reference to the individual soul is not
meant to determine the nature of the individual soul, but rather the
nature of the highest Lord. In the following manner. The individual soul
which, in the passage referred to, is called the serene being, acts in
the waking state as the ruler of the aggregate comprising the body and
the sense-organs; permeates in sleep the na/d/is of the body, and enjoys
the dream visions resulting from the impressions of the waking state;
and, finally, desirous of reaching an inner refuge, rises in the state
of deep sleep beyond its imagined connexion with the gross and the
subtle body, reaches the highest light, i.e. the highest Brahman
previously called ether, and thus divesting itself of the state of
specific cognition appears in its own (true) nature. The highest light
which the soul is to reach and through which it is manifested in its
true nature is the Self, free from sin and so on, which is there
represented as the object of worship.--In this sense the reference to
the individual soul can be admitted by those also who maintain that in
reality the highest Lord is meant.

21. If it be said that on account of the scriptural declaration of the
smallness (of the ether) (the Lord cannot be meant; we reply that) that
has been explained (before).

The purvapakshin has remarked that the smallness of the ether stated by
Scripture ('In it is that small ether') does not agree with the highest
Lord, that it may however be predicated of the individual soul which (in
another passage) is c