known?’—­is possible only if the allusion is to Brahman the Self of all, and not either to the pradhana which comprises only what is non-intelligent or to the enjoyer viewed apart from the objects of enjoyment.—­The text, moreover, by introducing the knowledge of Brahman as the chief subject—­which it does in the passage (I, 1, 1), ’He told the knowledge of Brahman, the foundation of all knowledge, to his eldest son Atharvan’—­and by afterwards declaring that out of the two kinds of knowledge, viz. the lower one and the higher one, the higher one leads to the comprehension of the Imperishable, shows that the knowledge of the Imperishable is the knowledge of Brahman.  On the other hand, the term ‘knowledge of Brahman’ would become meaningless if that Imperishable which is to be comprehended by means of it were not Brahman.  The lower knowledge of works which comprises the Rig-veda, and so on, is mentioned preliminarily to the knowledge of Brahman for the mere purpose of glorifying the latter; as appears from the passages in which it (the lower knowledge) is spoken of slightingly, such as (I, 2, 7), ’But frail indeed are those boats, the sacrifices, the eighteen in which this lower ceremonial has been told.  Fools who praise this as the highest good are subject again and again to old age and death.’  After these slighting remarks the text declares that he who turns away from the lower knowledge is prepared for the highest one (I, 2, 12), ’Let a Brahama/n/a after he has examined all these worlds which are gained by works acquire freedom from all desires.  Nothing that is eternal (not made) can be gained by what is not eternal (made).  Let him in order to understand this take fuel in his hand and approach a guru who is learned and dwells entirely in Brahman.’—­The remark that, because the earth and other non-intelligent things are adduced as parallel instances, that also which is compared to them, viz. the source of all beings must be non-intelligent, is without foundation, since it is not necessary that two things of which one is compared to the other should be of absolutely the same nature.  The things, moreover, to which the source of all beings is compared, viz. the earth and the like, are material, while nobody would assume the source of all beings to be material.—­For all these reasons the source of all beings, which possesses the attributes of invisibility and so on, is the highest Lord.

22.  The two others (i.e. the individual soul and the pradhana) are not (the source of all beings) because there are stated distinctive attributes and difference.