Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/29

 which is in any manner whatsoever different from it is wholly unreal (pp. 51 to 53.) The Mahd-purvapaksha or the ' great objection ' is here brought to an end.

Then begins the Mahd-siddhdnta or the ' great con- clusion ' of Ramanuja and his school regarding the mean- ing of the word therefore in the first aphorism. The meaning conveyed by this word is thus expressed (p. 242.) in Ramanuja's own words : " Mere ritualistic works yield only small and transitory results. On the other hand, such works as constitute the worship of the Highest Person, and are performed without attachment to results yield an infinite and ever-enduring result in the form of that experience of the real nature of the Brahman which is caused by the origination of the knowledge which is the same as steady meditation or worship. Both these cannot become known without a knowledge of the true nature of works. Without such knowledge there can be no rejection of mere ritualistic works as they ordinarily are, and no subsequent adoption of them in the form pointed out above. Therefore, for this very reason, the enquiry into the Brahman has necessarily to be conducted." This conclusion is arrived at only after meeting fully all the points raised against it in the ' great objection '. And they are met one by one in the following order. To start with it is shown that one's own experience, logical infer- ence, revelation, and definite as well as indefinite percep- tion, and all the other accepted criteria of truth prove only such things as are qualified by attributes, and that there is really no means of proving the thing which is absolute and unqualified. In this connection the nature of wJhat is called definite and also of what is called indefinite perception is distinctly explained, and the view which maintains that there is both difference and non-difference between a