The purvapakshin maintains that by the small ether we have to understand the elemental ether, since the latter meaning is the conventional one of the word aka/s/a.  The elemental ether is here called small with reference to its small abode (the heart).—­In the passage, ’As large as this ether is, so large is that ether within the heart,’ it is represented as constituting at the same time the two terms of a comparison, because it is possible to make a distinction between the outer and the inner ether[179]; and it is said that ’heaven and earth are contained within it,’ because the whole ether, in so far as it is space, is one[180].—­Or else, the purvapakshin continues, the ’small one’ may be taken to mean the individual soul, on account of the term, ‘the city of Brahman.’  The body is here called the city of Brahman because it is the abode of the individual soul; for it is acquired by means of the actions of the soul.  On this interpretation we must assume that the individual soul is here called Brahman metaphorically.  The highest Brahman cannot be meant, because it is not connected with the body as its lord.  The lord of the city, i.e. the soul, is represented as dwelling in one spot of the city (viz. the heart), just as a real king resides in one spot of his residence.  Moreover, the mind (manas) constitutes the limiting adjunct of the individual soul, and the mind chiefly abides in the heart; hence the individual soul only can be spoken of as dwelling in the heart.  Further, the individual soul only can be spoken of as small, since it is (elsewhere; Svet.  Up.  V, 8) compared in size to the point of a goad.  That it is compared (in the passage under discussion) to the ether must be understood to intimate its non difference from Brahman.—­Nor does the scriptural passage say that the ‘small’ one is to be sought for and to be understood, since in the clause, ‘That which is within that,’ &c., it is represented as a mere distinguishing attribute of something else[181].

To all this we make the following reply:—­The small ether can mean the highest Lord only, not either the elemental ether or the individual soul.—­Why?—­On account of the subsequent reasons, i.e. on account of the reasons implied in the complementary passage.  For there, the text declares at first, with reference to the small ether, which is enjoined as the object of sight, ‘If they should say to him,’ &c.; thereupon follows an objection, ’What is there that deserves to be sought for or that is to be understood?’ and thereon a final decisive statement, ’Then he should say:  As large as this ether is, so large is that ether within the heart.  Both heaven and earth are contained within it.’  Here the teacher, availing himself of the comparison of the ether within the heart with the known (universal) ether, precludes the conception that the ether within the heart is small—­which conception is based on the statement as to the smallness of the lotus, i.e. the heart—­and thereby