the highest Lord arranged at the beginning of the present kalpa the entire world with sun and moon, and so on, just as it had been arranged in the preceding kalpa.  Compare also Taitt.  Brahm.  III, 1, 4, 1, ’Agni desired:  May I become the consumer of the food of the gods; for that end he offered a cake on eight potsherds to Agni and the K/ri/ttikas.’  This passage, which forms part of the injunction of the ish/t/i to the Nakshatras, declares equality of name and form connecting the Agni who offered and the Agni to whom he offered.[206]

Sm/ri/ti also contains similar statements to be quoted here; so, for instance, ’Whatever were the names of the rishis and their powers to see the Vedas, the same the Unborn one again gives to them when they are produced afresh at the end of the night (the mahapralaya).  As the various signs of the seasons return in succession in their due time, thus the same beings again appear in the different yugas.  And of whatever individuality the gods of the past ages were, equal to them are the present gods in name and form.’

31.  On account of the impossibility of (the gods being qualified) for the madhu-vidya, &c., Jaimini (maintains) the non-qualification (of the gods for the Brahma-vidya).

A new objection is raised against the averment that the gods, &c. also are entitled to the knowledge of Brahman.  The teacher, Jaimini, considers the gods and similar beings not to have any claim.—­Why?—­On account of the impossibility, in the case of the so-called Madhu-vidya, &c.  If their claim to the knowledge of Brahman were admitted, we should have to admit their claim to the madhu-vidya (’the knowledge of the honey’) also, because that also is a kind of knowledge not different (from the knowledge of Brahman).  But to admit this latter claim is not possible; for, according to the passage, ’The Sun is indeed the honey of the devas’ (Ch.  Up.  III, 1, 1), men are to meditate on the sun (the god Aditya) under the form of honey, and how, if the gods themselves are admitted as meditating worshippers, can Aditya meditate upon another Aditya?—­Again, the text, after having enumerated five kinds of nectar, the red one, &c. residing in the sun, and after having stated that the five classes of gods, viz. the Vasus, Rudras, Adityas, Maruts, and Sadhyas, live on one of these nectars each, declares that ’he who thus knows this nectar becomes one of the Vasus, with Agni at their head, he sees the nectar and rejoices, &c., and indicates thereby that those who know the nectars enjoyed by the Vasus, &c., attain the greatness of the Vasus, &c.’  But how should the Vasus themselves know other Vasus enjoying the nectar, and what other Vasu-greatness should they desire to attain?—­We have also to compare the passages ’Agni is one foot, Aditya is one foot, the quarters are one foot’ (Ch.  Up.  III, 18, 2); ’Air is indeed the absorber’ (Ch.  Up.  IV, 3, 1); ’Aditya is Brahman, this is the doctrine.’  All