232 SVETA5VATARA-UPANISH AD.
2. Should time, or nature 1 , or necessity, or chance, or the elements be considered as the cause, or he who is called the person (purusha, vi^initmd) ? It cannot be their union either, because that is not self- dependent 2 , and the self also is powerless, because there is (independent of him) a cause of good and evil 3 .
3. The sages, devoted to meditation and concen- tration, have seen the power belonging to God himself 4 , hidden in its own qualities (gu/za). He, being one, superintends all those causes, time, self, and the rest 5 .
4 6 . We meditate on him who (like a wheel) has one felly with three tires, sixteen ends, fifty spokes, with twenty counter-spokes, and six sets of eight;
1 Svabhava, their own nature or independent character.
8 Union presupposes a uniter.
8 Atmd is explained by -Sankara as the ^iva^, the living self, and as that living self is in his present state determined by karman, work belonging to a former existence, it cannot be thought of as an independent cause.
4 Devdtmaxakti is a very important term, differently explained by the commentators, but meaning a power belonging to the Deva, the Irvara, the Lord, not independent of him, as the Sankhyas represent Prakrz'ti or nature. Herein lies the important distinction between Ved&nta and Sdhkhya.
6 Ka1&tmabhy&/# yukt&ni, kdlapurushasa^yuktdni svabh&vadini. Atman is here taken as synonymous with purusha in verse 2.
6 It is difficult to say whether this verse was written as a summing up of certain technicalities recognised in systems of philosophy exist- ing at the time, or whether it is a mere play of fancy. I prefer the former view, and subjoin the explanation given by Sankara, though it is quite possible that on certain points he may be mistaken. The fovara or deva is represented as a wheel with one felly, which would seem to be the phenomenal world. It is called trivrzt, three- fold, or rather having three tires, three bands or hoops to bind the felly, these tires being intended for the three guwas of the praknti, the Sattva, Ra^as, and Tamas. In the Brahmopanishad (Bibl. Ind.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
