of religious duty, and religious duty is that which is
characterised by injunction[258]; hence the sense of injunctions (i.e.
of the Veda) which is established first must not be fancifully
interpreted in reference to the dicta of men 'established' (i.e. made
perfect, and therefore possessing supernatural powers) afterwards only.
Moreover, even if those 'perfect' men were accepted as authorities to be
appealed to, still, as there are many such perfect men, we should have,
in all those cases where the Sm/ri/tis contradict each other in the
manner described, no other means of final decision than an appeal to
/S/ruti.--As to men destitute of the power of independent judgment, we
are not justified in assuming that they will without any reason attach
themselves to some particular Sm/ri/ti; for if men's inclinations were
so altogether unregulated, truth itself would, owing to the multiformity
of human opinion, become unstable. We must therefore try to lead their
judgment in the right way by pointing out to them the conflict of the
Sm/ri/tis, and the distinction founded on some of them following /S/ruti
and others not.--The scriptural passage which the purvapakshin has
quoted as proving the eminence of Kapila's knowledge would not justify
us in believing in such doctrines of Kapila (i.e. of some Kapila) as are
contrary to Scripture; for that passage mentions the bare name of Kapila
(without specifying which Kapila is meant), and we meet in tradition
with another Kapila, viz. the one who burned the sons of Sagara and had
the surname Vasudeva. That passage, moreover, serves another purpose,
(viz. the establishment of the doctrine of the highest Self,) and has on
that account no force to prove what is not proved by any other means,
(viz. the supereminence of Kapila's knowledge.) On the other hand, we
have a /S/ruti-passage which proclaims the excellence of Manu[259], viz.
'Whatever Manu said is medicine' (Taitt. Sa/m/h. II, 2, 10, 2). Manu
himself, where he glorifies the seeing of the one Self in everything
('he who equally sees the Self in all beings and all beings in the Self,
he as a sacrificer to the Self attains self-luminousness,' i.e. becomes
Brahman, Manu Sm/ri/ti XII, 91), implicitly blames the doctrine of
Kapila. For Kapila, by acknowledging a plurality of Selfs, does not
admit the doctrine of there being one universal Self. In the Mahabharata
also the question is raised whether there are many persons (souls) or
one; ther
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