Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/33

 of egoity known as ahankara, in as much as subjectivity can in no way belong to objective matter. The knower- shipofthe self does not contradict its immodifiable nature, and need not therefore be supposed to be due to modifia- ble matter in any form (pp. 84-87.). / Ahankara or the material principle of egoity cannot be supposed to have acquired the attribute of knowership either as a result of the reflection of the self's intelligence thereon, or as a result of its contact with the knowing self (pp. 87-88.). Moreover, this supposed illusion of know- ership cannot be due to the material principle of egoity being the revealer of immaterial consciousness, in as much as the relation of the revealer and the revealed between any two things is mutually exchangeable and cannot exist when there is any incompatibility in nature between them. Xor is it appropriate to hold that ahah- kdra reveals consciousness at the same time that conscious- ness reveals ahankara ; because it is not possible to under- stand what this revelation of the self through ahankara may mean, in as much as the self is not within the province of the senses and nothing can therefore serve as the means of bringing it into relation with them (pp. 88-90.). Nor again can the idea of the ego be^due to the material princi- ple of egoity, on the score that this principle and this idea derived therefrom are useful in removing whatever ob- struction there is for our knowing the self. Indeed in no sense can there be a revelation of immaterial consciousness by means of the material principle of egoity (pp. 91-92.). Then it is argued that the nature of revealers is not to reveal the revealable thing as though it were within them- selves, and it is finally concluded that the subjective self itself forms the thing ' I ' which is in no way other than the knower (pp. 93-94.)- The idea of the ego which is