ark that the objection is removed, if we understand the
passage to refer to emancipation by degrees. He who meditates on the
highest Self by means of the syllable Om, as consisting of three matras,
obtains for his (first) reward the world of Brahman, and after that,
gradually, complete intuition.

14. The small (ether) (is Brahman) on account of the subsequent
(arguments).

We read (Ch. Up. VIII, 1, 1), 'There is this city of Brahman, and in it
the palace, the small lotus, and in it that small ether. Now what exists
within that small ether that is to be sought for, that is to be
understood,' &c.--Here the doubt arises whether the small ether within
the small lotus of the heart of which Scripture speaks, is the elemental
ether, or the individual soul (vij/n/anatman), or the highest Self. This
doubt is caused by the words 'ether' and 'city of Brahman.' For the word
'ether,' in the first place, is known to be used in the sense of
elemental ether as well as of highest Brahman. Hence the doubt whether
the small ether of the text be the elemental ether or the highest ether,
i.e. Brahman. In explanation of the expression 'city of Brahman,' in the
second place, it might be said either that the individual soul is here
called Brahman and the body Brahman's city, or else that the city of
Brahman means the city of the highest Brahman. Here (i.e. in consequence
of this latter doubt) a further doubt arises as to the nature of the
small ether, according as the individual soul or the highest Self is
understood by the Lord of the city.

The purvapakshin maintains that by the small ether we have to understand
the elemental ether, since the latter meaning is the conventional one of
the word aka/s/a. The elemental ether is here called small with
reference to its small abode (the heart).--In the passage, 'As large as
this ether is, so large is that ether within the heart,' it is
represented as constituting at the same time the two terms of a
comparison, because it is possible to make a distinction between the
outer and the inner ether[179]; and it is said that 'heaven and earth
are contained within it,' because the whole ether, in so far as it is
space, is one[180].--Or else, the purvapakshin continues, the 'small
one' may be taken to mean the individual soul, on account of the term,
'the city of Brahman.' The body is here called the city of Brahman
because it is the abode of the individual soul; for it is acquired by
means of the action