dge and power of action, and who again appear in the
present kalpa, do, if favoured by the highest Lord, continue (in the
present kalpa) the same kind of existence which they enjoyed in the
preceding kalpa; just as a man who rises from sleep continues the same
form of existence which he enjoyed previously to his sleep. Thus
Scripture also declares, 'He who first creates Brahman (Hira/n/yagarbha)
and delivers the Vedas to him, to that God who is the light of his own
thoughts, I, seeking for release, go for refuge' (/S/vet. Up. VI, 18).
/S/aunaka and others moreover declare (in the Anukrama/n/is of the Veda)
that the ten books (of the /Ri/g-veda) were seen by Madhu/kkh/andas and
other /ri/shis.[204] And, similarly, Sm/ri/ti tells us, for every Veda,
of men of exalted mental vision (/ri/shis) who 'saw' the subdivisions of
their respective Vedas, such as ka/nd/as and so on. Scripture also
declares that the performance of the sacrificial action by means of the
mantra is to be preceded by the knowledge of the /ri/shi and so on, 'He
who makes another person sacrifice or read by means of a mantra of which
he does not know the /ri/shi, the metre, the divinity, and the
Brahma/n/a, runs against a post, falls into a pit[205], &c. &c.,
therefore one must know all those matters for each mantra' (Arsheya
Brahma/n/a, first section).--Moreover, religious duty is enjoined and
its opposite is forbidden, in order that the animate beings may obtain
pleasure and escape pain. Desire and aversion have for their objects
pleasure and pain, known either from experience or from Scripture, and
do not aim at anything of a different nature. As therefore each new
creation is (nothing but) the result of the religious merit and demerit
(of the animated beings of the preceding creation), it is produced with
a nature resembling that of the preceding creation. Thus Sm/ri/ti also
declares, 'To whatever actions certain of these (animated beings) had
turned in a former creation, to the same they turn when created again
and again. Whether those actions were harmful or harmless, gentle or
cruel, right or wrong, true or untrue, influenced by them they proceed;
hence a certain person delights in actions of a certain
kind.'--Moreover, this world when being dissolved (in a mahapralaya) is
dissolved to that extent only that the potentiality (/s/akti) of the
world remains, and (when it is produced again) it is produced from the
root of that potentiality; otherwise we s