g the
agnihotra and similar performances. They tell us at what time and with
what rites the members of the different castes are to be initiated; how
the Veda has to be studied; in what way the cessation of study has to
take place; how marriage has to be performed, and so on. They further
lay down the manifold religious duties, beneficial to man, of the four
castes and a/s/ramas[255]. The Kapila Sm/ri/ti, on the other hand, and
similar books are not concerned with things to be done, but were
composed with exclusive reference to perfect knowledge as the means of
final release. If then no room were left for them in that connexion
also, they would be altogether purposeless; and hence we must explain
the Vedanta-texts in such a manner as not to bring them into conflict
with the Sm/ri/tis mentioned[256].--But how, somebody may ask the
purvapakshin, can the eventual fault of there being left no room for
certain Sm/ri/tis be used as an objection against that sense of /S/ruti
which--from various reasons as detailed under I, 1 and ff.--has been
ascertained by us to be the true one, viz. that the omniscient Brahman
alone is the cause of the world?--Our objection, the purvapakshin
replies, will perhaps not appear valid to persons of independent
thought; but as most men depend in their reasonings on others, and are
unable to ascertain by themselves the sense of /S/ruti, they naturally
rely on Sm/ri/tis, composed by celebrated authorities, and try to arrive
at the sense of /S/ruti with their assistance; while, owing to their
esteem for the authors of the Sm/ri/tis, they have no trust in our
explanations. The knowledge of men like Kapila Sm/ri/ti declares to have
been /ri/shi-like and unobstructed, and moreover there is the following
/S/ruti-passage, 'It is he who, in the beginning, bears in his thoughts
the son, the /ri/shi, kapila[257], whom he wishes to look on while he is
born' (/S/ve. Up. V, 2). Hence their opinion cannot be assumed to be
erroneous, and as they moreover strengthen their position by
argumentation, the objection remains valid, and we must therefore
attempt to explain the Vedanta-texts in conformity with the Sm/ri/tis.

This objection we dispose of by the remark, 'It is not so because
therefrom would result the fault of want of room for other
Sm/ri/tis.'--If you object to the doctrine of the Lord being the cause
of the world on the ground that it would render certain Sm/ri/tis
purposeless, you thereby render purpose