ain that the meditation spoken
of has the individual soul for its object. The other attributes also
subsequently stated in the text, 'He to whom all works, all desires
belong,' &c. may rightly be held to refer to the individual soul. The
attributes, finally, of being what abides in the heart and of being
extremely minute which are mentioned in the passage, 'He is my Self
within the heart, smaller than a corn of rice, smaller than a corn of
barley,' may be ascribed to the individual soul which has the size of
the point of a goad, but not to the unlimited Brahman. If it be objected
that the immediately following passage, 'greater than the earth,' &c.,
cannot refer to something limited, we reply that smallness and greatness
which are mutually opposite cannot indeed be ascribed to one and the
same thing; and that, if one attribute only is to be ascribed to the
subject of the passage, smallness is preferable because it is mentioned
first; while the greatness mentioned later on may be attributed to the
soul in so far as it is one with Brahman. If it is once settled that the
whole passage refers to the individual soul, it follows that the
declaration of Brahman also, contained in the passage, 'That is Brahman'
(III, 14, 4), refers to the individual soul[137], as it is clearly
connected with the general topic. Therefore the individual soul is the
object of meditation indicated by the qualities of consisting of mind
and so on.

To all this we reply: The highest Brahman only is what is to be
meditated upon as distinguished by the attributes of consisting of mind
and so on.--Why?--'On account of there being taught here what is known
from everywhere.' What is known from all Vedanta-passages to be the
sense of the word Brahman, viz. the cause of the world, and what is
mentioned here in the beginning words of the passage, ('all this indeed
is Brahman,') the same we must assume to be taught here as distinguished
by certain qualities, viz. consisting of mind and so on. Thus we avoid
the fault of dropping the subject-matter under discussion and needlessly
introducing a new topic.--But, it may be said, it has been shown that
Brahman is, in the beginning of the passage, introduced merely for the
purpose of intimating the injunction of calmness of mind, not for the
purpose of intimating Brahman itself.--True, we reply; but the fact
nevertheless remains that, where the qualities of consisting of mind,
&c. are spoken of, Brahman only is prox