Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/50

 ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. XXX111

dependence of the accomplishment of desire upon effort. Volitional desire has to be expressed by means of language before it is worked out into 'action'; and this 'action' itself cannot be the thing desired, and it is not also capable of being defined as that which is accomplished by volition and which is also the principal object of volition (pp. 249-252.). Even when we take Vcdic commandments into consideration we find that the action denoted by the verb in them is not the object that is to be accomplished by obeying them ; nor is this object the Apurva that is produced by performing the action denoted by the verb of command. It must be some desirable and pleasing object like Swarga or it must be the avoidance of pain. A commandment is no pleasure in itself, and is not anywhere described as such in the Vedas ; and the mandatory passages found in the Vedas relate only to such actions as are indicated by the verbs that give the command. Therefore commandments are not obeyed and worked out merely for themselves. Sacrifices and other such works, enjoined by the scripture and denoted by the verbal roots in the scriptural com- mandments, have all the character of constituting the worship of the Highest Person who is the internal ruler of all gods ; and the result aimed at by those works flows to us altogether from that Highest Person Himself (pp. 252- 255.). The knowledge of the meaning and nature of Swarga is necessary on the part of him who performs the Jyotishtoma sacrifice, in as much as Sivarga is the object to be attained and the sacrifice is the means therefor. Similarly the Vcddntic Brahman is the highest object to be attained by man, and Vcdic 1 works' are only the means to attain Him. The statement that the Qlidturmasya sacrifice yields indestructible

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