and forms, acts, agents and fruits (of action) has for its cause the existence of the light of Brahman; just as the existence of the light of the sun is the cause of the manifestation of all form and colour.—­Moreover, the text shows by means of the word ‘there’ (’the sun does not shine there,’ &c.) that the passage is to be connected with the general topic, and that topic is Brahman as appears from Mu.  Up.  II, 2, 5, ’In whom the heaven, the earth, and the sky are woven,’ &c.  The same appears from a passage subsequent (on the one just quoted and immediately preceding the passage under discussion).  ’In the highest golden sheath there is the Brahman without passion and without parts; that is pure, that is the light of lights, that is it which they know who know the Self.’  This passage giving rise to the question, ‘How is it the light of lights?’ there is occasion for the reply given in ‘The sun does not shine there,’ &c.—­In refutation of the assertion that the shining of luminous bodies such as the sun and the moon can be denied only in case of there being another luminous body—­as, for instance, the light of the moon and the stars is denied only when the sun is shining—­we point out that it has been shown that he (the Self) only can be the luminous being referred to, nothing else.  And it is quite possible to deny the shining of sun, moon, and so on with regard to Brahman; for whatever is perceived is perceived by the light of Brahman only so that sun, moon, &c. can be said to shine in it; while Brahman as self-luminous is not perceived by means of any other light.  Brahman manifests everything else, but is not manifested by anything else; according to such scriptural passages as, ’By the Self alone as his light man sits,’ &c. (B/ri/.  Up.  IV, 3, 6), and ’He is incomprehensible, for he cannot be comprehended ’(B/ri/.  Up.  IV, 2, 4).

23.  Moreover Sm/ri/ti also speaks of him (i.e. of the praj/n/a Self as being the universal light).

Moreover that aspect of the praj/n/a Self is spoken of in Sm/ri/ti also, viz. in the Bhagavad Gita (XV, 6, 12), ’Neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the fire illumines that; having gone into which men do not return, that is my highest seat.’  And ’The light which abiding in the sun illumines the whole world, and that which is in the moon and that which is in the fire, all that light know to be mine.’

24.  On account of the term, (viz. the term ‘lord’ applied to it) the (person) measured (by a thumb) (is the highest Lord).

We read (Ka.  Up.  II, 4, 12), ’The person of the size of a thumb stands in the middle of the Self,’ &c., and (II, 4, 13), ’That person, of the size of a thumb, is like a light without smoke, lord of the past and of the future, he is the same to-day and to-morrow.  This is that.’—­The question here arises whether the person of the size of a thumb mentioned in the text is the cognitional (individual) Self or the highest Self.