ns of ordinary life also must not be declared to be
unfounded, if it is at all possible to accept them.

The general result is that we have the right to conceive the gods as
possessing personal existence, on the ground of mantras, arthavadas,
itihasas, pura/n/as, and ordinarily prevailing ideas. And as the gods
may thus be in the condition of having desires and so on, they must be
considered as qualified for the knowledge of Brahman. Moreover, the
declarations which Scripture makes concerning gradual emancipation[219]
agree with this latter supposition only.

34. Grief of him (i.e. of Jana/s/ruti) (arose) on account of his hearing
a disrespectful speech about himself; on account of the rushing on of
that (grief) (Raikva called him /S/udra); for it (the grief) is pointed
at (by Raikva).

(In the preceding adhikara/n/a) the exclusiveness of the claim of men to
knowledge has been refuted, and it has been declared that the gods, &c.
also possess such a claim. The present adhikara/n/a is entered on for
the purpose of removing the doubt whether, as the exclusiveness of the
claim of twice-born men is capable of refutation, the /S/udras also
possess such a claim.

The purvapakshin maintains that the /S/udras also have such a claim,
because they may be in the position of desiring that knowledge, and
because they are capable of it; and because there is no scriptural
prohibition (excluding them from knowledge) analogous to the text,
'Therefore[220] the /S/udra is unfit for sacrificing' (Taitt. Sa/m/h.
VII, 1, 1, 6). The reason, moreover, which disqualifies the /S/udras for
sacrificial works, viz. their being without the sacred fires, does not
invalidate their qualification for knowledge, as knowledge can be
apprehended by those also who are without the fires. There is besides an
inferential mark supporting the claim of the /S/udras; for in the
so-called sa/m/varga-knowledge he (Raikva) refers to Jana/s/ruti
Pautraya/n/a, who wishes to learn from him, by the name of /S/udra 'Fie,
necklace and carnage be thine, O /S/udra, together with the cows' (Ch.
Up. IV, 2, 3). Sm/ri/ti moreover speaks of Vidura and others who were
born from /S/udra mothers as possessing eminent knowledge.--Hence the
/S/udra has a claim to the knowledge of Brahman.

To this we reply that the /S/udras have no such claim, on account of
their not studying the Veda. A person who has studied the Veda and
understood its sense is indeed qualified for Vedic matters