From all this it follows that the theory according to which the individual gods and so on originate from the eternal words is unobjectionable.

29.  And from this very reason there follows the eternity of the Veda.

As the eternity of the Veda is founded on the absence of the remembrance of an agent only, a doubt with regard to it had been raised owing to the doctrine that the gods and other individuals have sprung from it.  That doubt has been refuted in the preceding Sutra.—­The present Sutra now confirms the, already established, eternity of the Veda.  The eternity of the word of the Veda has to be assumed for this very reason, that the world with its definite (eternal) species, such as gods and so on, originates from it.—­A mantra also (’By means of the sacrifice they followed the trace of speech; they found it dwelling in the rishis,’ Rig-veda Sa/m/h.  X, 71, 3) shows that the speech found (by the rishis) was permanent.—­On this point Vedavyasa also speaks as follows:  ’Formerly the great rishis, being allowed to do so by Svayambhu, obtained, through their penance, the Vedas together with the itihasas, which had been hidden at the end of the yuga.’

30.  And on account of the equality of names and forms there is no contradiction (to the eternity of the word of the Veda) in the renovation (of the world); as is seen from Sruti and Sm/ri/ti.

If—­the purvapakshin resumes—­the individual gods and so on did, like the individual animals, originate and pass away in an unbroken succession so that there would be no break of the course of practical existence including denominations, things denominated and agents denominating; the connexion (between word and thing) would be eternal, and the objection as to a contradiction with reference to the word (raised in Sutra 27) would thereby be refuted.  But if, as Sruti and Sm/ri/ti declare, the whole threefold world periodically divests itself of name and form, and is entirely dissolved (at the end of a kalpa), and is after that produced anew; how can the contradiction be considered to have been removed?

To this we reply:  ’On account of the sameness of name and form.’—­Even then the beginninglessness of the world will have to be admitted (a point which the teacher will prove later on:  II, 1, 36).  And in the beginningless sa/m/sara we have to look on the (relative) beginning, and the dissolution connected with a new kalpa in the same light in which we look on the sleeping and waking states, which, although in them according to Scripture (a kind of) dissolution and origination take place, do not give rise to any contradiction, since in the later waking state (subsequent to the state of sleep) the practical existence is carried on just as in the former one.  That in the sleeping and the waking states dissolution and origination take place is stated Kaush.  Up.  III, 3, ’When a man being asleep sees no dream whatever he becomes one with that pra/n/a alone.  Then speech goes to him with all names, the eye with all forms, the ear with all sounds, the mind with all thoughts.  And when he awakes then, as from a burning fire, sparks proceed in all directions, thus from that Self the pra/n/as proceed, each towards its place; from the pra/n/as the gods, from the gods the worlds.’