The expression ‘on the other hand’ is meant to rebut the purvapaksha.  The teacher, Badaraya/n/a, maintains the existence of the qualification on the part of the gods, &c.  For, although the qualification of the gods cannot be admitted with reference to the madhu-vidya, and similar topics of knowledge, in which the gods themselves are implicated, still they may be qualified for the pure knowledge of Brahman, qualification in general depending on the presence of desire, capability, &c.[211] Nor does the impossibility of qualification in certain cases interfere with the presence of qualification in those other cases where it is not impossible.  To the case of the gods the same reasoning applies as to the case of men; for among men also, all are not qualified for everything, Brahma/n/as, for instance, not for the rajasuya-sacrifice[212].

And, with reference to the knowledge of Brahman, Scripture, moreover, contains express hints notifying that the devas are qualified; compare, for instance, Bri.  Up.  I, 4, 10, ’Whatever Deva was awakened (so as to know Brahman) he indeed became that; and the same with rishis;’ Ch.  Up.  VIII, 7, 2, ’They said:  Well, let us search for that Self by which, if one has searched it out, all worlds and all desires are obtained.  Thus saying, Indra went forth from the Devas, Viro/k/ana from the Asuras.’  Similar statements are met with in Sm/ri/ti, so, for instance, in the colloquy of the Gandharva and Yaj/n/avalkya[213].—­Against the objection raised in the preceding Sutra (32) we argue as follows.  Words like aditya, and so on, which denote devas, although having reference to light and the like, yet convey the idea of certain divine Selfs (persons) endowed with intelligence and pre-eminent power; for they are used in that sense in mantras and arthavada passages.  For the devas possess, in consequence of their pre-eminent power, the capability of residing within the light, and so on, and to assume any form they like.  Thus we read in Scripture, in the arthavada passage explaining the words ‘ram of Medhatithi,’ which form part of the Subrahma/n/ya-formula, that ’Indra, having assumed the shape of a ram, carried off Medhatithi, the descendant of Ka/n/va’ (Sha/d/v.  Br.  I, 1).  And thus Sm/ri/ti says that ‘Aditya, having assumed the shape of a man, came to Kunti.’  Moreover, even in such substances as earth, intelligent ruling beings must be admitted to reside, for that appears from such scriptural passages as ‘the earth spoke,’ ‘the waters spoke,’ &c.  The non-intelligence of light and the like, in so far as they are mere material elements, is admitted in the case of the sun (aditya), &c. also; but—­as already remarked—­from the use of the words in mantras and arthavadas it appears that there are intelligent beings of divine nature (which animate those material elements).