n what then is the ether woven,
like warp and woof?--He said: O Gargi, the Brahma/n/as call this the
akshara (the Imperishable). It is neither coarse nor fine,' and so
on.--Here the doubt arises whether the word 'akshara' means 'syllable'
or 'the highest Lord.'

The purvapakshin maintains that the word 'akshara' means 'syllable'
merely, because it has, in such terms as akshara-samamnaya, the meaning
of 'syllable;' because we have no right to disregard the settled meaning
of a word; and because another scriptural passage also ('The syllable Om
is all this,' Ch. Up. II, 23, 4) declares a syllable, represented as the
object of devotion, to be the Self of all.

To this we reply that the highest Self only is denoted by the word
'akshara.'--Why?--Because it (the akshara) is said to support the entire
aggregate of effects, from earth up to ether. For the sacred text
declares at first that the entire aggregate of effects beginning with
earth and differentiated by threefold time is based on ether, in which
it is 'woven like warp and woof;' leads then (by means of the question,
'In what then is the ether woven, like warp and woof?') over to the
akshara, and, finally, concludes with the words, 'In that akshara then,
O Gargi, the ether is woven, like warp and woof.'--Now the attribute of
supporting everything up to ether cannot be ascribed to any being but
Brahman. The text (quoted from the Ch. Up.) says indeed that the
syllable Om is all this, but that statement is to be understood as a
mere glorification of the syllable Om considered as a means to obtain
Brahman.--Therefore we take akshara to mean either 'the Imperishable' or
'that which pervades;' on the ground of either of which explanations it
must be identified with the highest Brahman.

But--our opponent resumes--while we must admit that the above reasoning
holds good so far that the circumstance of the akshara supporting all
things up to ether is to be accepted as a proof of all effects depending
on a cause, we point out that it may be employed by those also who
declare the pradhana to be the general cause. How then does the previous
argumentation specially establish Brahman (to the exclusion of the
pradhana)?--The reply to this is given in the next Sutra.

11. This (supporting can), on account of the command (attributed to the
Imperishable, be the work of the highest Lord only).

The supporting of all things up to ether is the work of the highest Lord
only.--Why?--On