ciding with the Ved, found that the accurate and positive knowledge of the Supreme Being is not within the boundary of comprehension; i. e. that what, and how, the Supreme Being is, cannot be definitely ascertained. He has therefore, in the second text, explained the Supreme Being by his effects and works, without attempting to define his essence; in like manner as we, not knowing the real nature of the sun, explain him to be the cause of the succession of days and epochs. "He

by whom the birth, existence, and annihilation of the "world is regulated, is the Supreme Being!" We see the multifarious, wonderful universe, as well as the birth, existence, and annihilation, of its different parts; hence, we naturally infer the existence of a being who regulates the whole, and call him the Supreme: in the same manner as from the sight of a pot, we conclude the existence of its artificer. The Ved, in like manner, declares the Supreme Being thus: "He from whom the universal "world proceeds, who is the Lord of the Universe, and "whose work is the universe, is the Supreme Being !"*

The Ved is not supposed to be an eternal Being, though sometimes dignified with such an epithet; because its being created by the Supreme Being is declared in the same Ved thus: "All the texts and parts "of the Ved were created:" and also in the third text of the Vedant, God is declared to be the cause of all the Veds.

The void Space is not conceived to be the independent cause of the world, notwithstanding the following declaration of the Ved, "The world proceeds from the "void space;"+ for the Ved again declares, "By the + Chhandoggu.

*Taittureeu.

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Supreme Being the void space was produced." And the Vedant* says: "As the Supreme Being is evi"dently declared in the Ved to be the cause of the "void Space, Air, and Fire, neither of them can be "supposed to be the independent cause of the uni

"verse.

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Neither is Air allowed to be the Lord of the Universe, although the Ved says in one instance, "In Air "every existing creature is absorbed;" for the Ved again affirms, that "Breath, the intellectual power, all "the internal and external senses, the void Space, Air, Light, Water, and the extensive Earth, proceeded "from the Supreme Being!" The Vedant + also says: "God is meant by the following text of the Ved, as "a Being more extensive than all the extension of "Space;" riz. "That breath is greater than the exten"sion of Space in all directions," as it occurs in the Ved, after the discourse concerning common breath is concluded.

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Light, of whatever description, is not inferred to be the Lord of the Universe, from the following assertion / of the Ved: "The pure Light of all Lights is the Lord "of all creatures;" for the Ved again declares, that "The sun and all others imitate God, and borrow their "light from him;" and the same declaration is found in the Vedant. §

Neither can Nature be construed by the following texts of the Ved, to be the independent cause of the world: viz. "Man having known that Nature which is an eternal being, without a beginning or an end, is *Fourteenth text, 4th sec. 1st chap.

66

+ 8th, 3d, 1st.

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"delivered from the grasp of death!" and, "Nature 66 operates herself!" because the Ved affirms that "No being is superior or equal to God!"* and the Ved commands, "Know God alone!" + and the Vedant‡ thus declares: "Nature is not the Creator of the world, not being represented so by the Ved," for it expressly says, "God has by his sight created the Universe." Nature is an insensible Being, she is, therefore, void of sight or intention, and consequently unable to create the regular world. §

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Atoms are not supposed to be the cause of the world, notwithstanding the following declaration: "This (Creator) is the most minute Being." Because an atom is an insensible particle, and from the above authority it is proved, that no Being void of understanding can be the author of a system so skilfully arranged.

The Soul cannot be inferred from the following texts, to be the Lord of the Universe, nor the independent Ruler of the intellectual powers; viz. "The Soul being joined "to the resplendent Being, enjoys by itself," "God and "the Soul enter the small void space of the heart;" because the Ved declares that "He (God) resides in the Soul as its Ruler," and that "The Soul being joined to the

gracious Being, enjoys happiness."|| The Vedant also says, "The sentient soul is not understood to reside as "ruler in the Earth, because in both texts of the Ved "it is differently declared from that Being who rules the "Earth:" viz. "He (God) resides in the faculty of the "understanding," and "He, who resides in the Soul,

" &c."

* Cuthu.

§ Cuthu.

+ Moonduc.

# 5th, 1st, 1st. 20th, 2d, 1st.

No God or Goddess of the Earth can be meant by the following text, as the ruler of the Earth, viz.* “He "who resides in the Earth, and is distinct from the Earth, " and whom the Earth does not know," &c.: because the Ved affirms that, "This (God alone) is the ruler of "internal sense, and is the eternal Being;" and the same is asserted in the Vedant.+

By the text which begins with the following sentence: viz. "This is the Sun," and by several other texts testifying the dignity of the sun, he is not supposed to be the original cause of the universe, because the Ved declares, that" He who resides in the Sun (as his Lord) "is distinct from the Sun," and the Vedant declares the same.§

In like manner none of the celestial Gods can be inferred from the various assertions of the Ved, respecting their deities respectively, to be the independent cause of the Universe; because the Ved repeatedly affirms, that "All the Veds prove nothing but the unity of the 66 Supreme Being." By allowing the Divinity more than one Being, the following positive affirmations of the Ved, relative to the unity of God, become false and absurd: "God is indeed one and has no second."|| "There is none but the Supreme Being possessed of "universal knowledge."¶ "He who is without any "figure, and beyond the limit of description, is the "Supreme Being."**"Appellations and figures of all "kinds are innovations." And from the authority of many other texts it is evident that any being that bears

Brih'darunnue. § 21st, 1st, 1st.

† 18th, 2d, 1st.

|| Cuthu.

** Chhandoggu.

Brih'darunnue.

Brih'darunnue.

figure, and is subject to description, cannot be the eternal independent cause of the universe.

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The Veds not only call the celestial representations Deities, but also in many instances give the divine epithet to the mind, diet, void space, quadruped animal, slaves, and flymen: as, "The Supreme Being is a quadruped animal in one place, and in another he is full "of glory. The mind is the Supreme Being, it is to "be worshipped," "God is the letter ku as well as "khu," and "God is in the shape of slaves and that "of flymen." The Ved has allegorically represented God in the figure of the Universe, viz. “Fire is his "head, the sun and the moon are his two eyes,' "* &c. And also the Ved calls God the void space of the heart, and declares him to be smaller than the grain of paddy and barley but from the foregoing quotations neither any of the celestial Gods, nor any existing creature, should be considered the Lord of the Universe, because the third chapter of the Vedant explains the reason for these secondary assertions thus: "By these appella❝tions of the Ved which denote the diffusive spirit of "the Supreme Being equally over all creatures by "means of extension, his omnipresence is established:" so the Ved says, "All that exists is indeed God," i. e: nothing bears true existence excepting God, “and "whatever we smell or taste is the Supreme Being," i. e. the existence of whatever thing that appears to us relies on the existence of God. It is indisputably evident that none of these metaphorical representations, which arise from the elevated style in which all the Veds are written, were designed to be viewed in any + 38th text, 2d sec. Chhanddoggu.

* Monduc.