ty
leaves no room for the distinction of a Ruler and something ruled.--This
objection we ward off by remarking that omniscience, &c. (i.e. those
qualities which belong to Brahman only in so far as it is related to a
world) depend on the evolution of the germinal principles called name
and form, whose essence is Nescience. The fundamental tenet which we
maintain (in accordance with such scriptural passages as, 'From that
Self sprang ether,' &c.; Taitt. Up. II, 1) is that the creation,
sustentation, and reabsorption of the world proceed from an omniscient,
omnipotent Lord, not from a non-intelligent pradhana or any other
principle. That tenet we have stated in I, 1, 4, and here we do not
teach anything contrary to it.--But how, the question may be asked, can
you make this last assertion while all the while you maintain the
absolute unity and non-duality of the Self?--Listen how. Belonging to
the Self, as it were, of the omniscient Lord, there are name and form,
the figments of Nescience, not to be defined either as being (i.e.
Brahman), nor as different from it[288], the germs of the entire expanse
of the phenomenal world, called in /S/ruti and Sm/ri/ti the illusion
(maya), power (/s/akti), or nature (prak/ri/ti) of the omniscient Lord.
Different from them is the omniscient Lord himself, as we learn from
scriptural passages such as the following, 'He who is called ether is
the revealer of all forms and names; that within which these forms and
names are contained is Brahman' (Ch. Up. VIII, 14, 1); 'Let me evolve
names and forms' (Ch. Up. VI, 3, 2); 'He, the wise one, who having
divided all forms and given all names, sits speaking (with those names)'
(Taitt. Ar. III, 12, 7); 'He who makes the one seed manifold' (/S/ve.
Up. VI, l2).--Thus the Lord depends (as Lord) upon the limiting adjuncts
of name and form, the products of Nescience; just as the universal ether
depends (as limited ether, such as the ether of a jar, &c.) upon the
limiting adjuncts in the shape of jars, pots, &c. He (the Lord) stands
in the realm of the phenomenal in the relation of a ruler to the
so-called jivas (individual souls) or cognitional Selfs (vij/n/anatman),
which indeed are one with his own Self--just as the portions of ether
enclosed in jars and the like are one with the universal ether--but are
limited by aggregates of instruments of action (i.e. bodies) produced
from name and form, the presentations of Nescience. Hence the Lord's
being a Lord,