' Practically, what is said here is that
all the acts of a Brahmana are performed with the aid of Vedic mantras.
1243. Mantras are necessary in cremating a Brahmana's dead body. Mantras
are needed for assisting the dead spirit to attain to a brilliant form
(either in the next world or in this if there be rebirth). These mantras
are, of course, uttered in Sraddhas. After the dead spirit has been
provided, with the aid of mantras, with a body, food and drink are
offered to him with the aid of mantras. Kine and animals are given away
by the representatives of the dead for enabling the dead ancestor to
cross the Vaitarani (the river that flows between the two worlds) and for
enabling him to become happy in heaven. The funeral cake, again,
according to the ordinance, is sunk in water for making it easily
attainable by him to whom it is offered. By becoming a human being one
inherits three debts. By study he pays off his debt to the Rishis: by the
performance of sacrifices he pays off his debt to the gods, and by
begetting children he frees himself from the debt he owes to the Pitris.
The argument then is this: when the Vedas, which are the words of Supreme
Godhead, have laid down these mantras for the attainment of such objects
in the next world, how can Emancipation, which involves an incorporeal
existence transcending the very Karana (form) be possible? The very
declarations of the Vedas in favour of acts are inconsistent with
incorporeal existence or with the negation of existence with dual
consciousness of knower and known.
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