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62. UMS IV.1.16 adds, "However, the agnihotra ritual, etc., are for the same goal, for we see texts which state this." This occasions a further insistence that works and knowledge cooperate. In agreement with the sutra Sankara argues "the obligatory daily duties like the agnihotra, enjoined in the Vedas, are meant for that very result. The idea is that their result is the same as that of knowledge." This is so, he adds, despite the fact that of themselves knowledge and rituals produce different kinds of results. In the period before realization, works aid the origination of knowledge "from afar." Vacaspati stresses the temporality of the process, whereby the ritual has a sure but limited place: "there is no ritual action at the time of the arising of knowledge, nor after it, but only before it . . ." (Skt. 960-1). |
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63. This recalls a similar Mimamsa discussion of those who may seem disqualified by physical, familial or economic defect; see PMS VI.1.39-43. Here, Vacaspati explains that since works help toward the beginning of knowledge, and not its accomplishment, those who are already desirous of knowledge, such as widowers desiring knowledge, cannot be held back from the goal by their nonperformance of rituals. Vacaspati's reference to Vidhura and others may introduce the possibility that certain sudras too can proceed toward the goal. |
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Chapter 5.
Theology After Advaita Vedanta: The Text, The Truth, And The Theologian |
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1. I continue in this chapter the usage established previously: "Text," or "Advaita Text," refers to the complex body of texts and contexts woven together by the Advaitins through the reading and writing together of texts from the upanisads to the latest of the commentaries on the Uttara Mimamsa Sutras. More generally, "Text" may be taken to refer to any theological tradition's complex set of (sacred) texts and commentaries as a whole act of writing and subsequently of reading. |
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2. The third of which remained unfinished at the time of Aquinas' death. |
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3. Each question (quaestio)is comprised of a number of articles (articuli),each of which begins with objections, followed by a statement of the correct position, and concludes with responses to the objects. Though there are important differences, both "question" and "article" are partly in correspondence to adhikarana. |
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4. The Summa Theologiae of Aquinas ends here, with a large supplementary section appended, in which the study of the sacraments is completed (Supple- |
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