वेदान्त पारिजात सौरभ (भगवद् निम्बार्काचार्य - द्वैताद्वैत वेदान्त ब्रह्मसूत्र भाष्य सटीक)

674 VEDĀNTA-KAUSTUBHA [SŪ. 3. 3. 42.
ADH. 19 ]
regularly Now, apprehending the objection, viz. that just as the
meditations on the subsidiary parts are independent of the whole,
so the meditations on the attributes are independent of the meditation
on the substratum of attributes—it is said.
Under the Dahara-vidyā 1, after having first stated the small
ether, i.e. the soul, the substratum of the attributes, as the object
to be meditated on thus: “Now, those who depart having known the
self here” (Chānd. 8 1 6), the text goes on to set forth separately
once more the meditations on the attributes of being free from sins
and the rest too thus “And these true desires” (Chānd. 8.1.6). Here
the doubt is as to whether while meditating on an attribute, the
small ether, the substratum of the attributes, too is to be meditated
on as possessed of that particular attribute, or not On the sugges-
tion: As the small ether can very well be meditated on at all times
as qualified by the attributes of being free from sins and so on, during
the meditation on the attributes, the meditation on Him as qualified
by those particular attributes is not to be repeated
We reply. “As in the case of offering”, the meditation on the
small ether, the substratum of attributes, as qualified by those parti-
cular attributes, is to be repeated with the meditations on those
attributes themselves. The sense is this. Although those attributes
like freedom from sins and so on have only one substratum, viz. the
small ether, yet in accordance with the text: “Free from sins, without-
old age” (Chānd. 8.1.5) and so on, which intends to designate its
(different) forms as qualified by those particular attributes, it is to be
meditated on as diverse. Just as in the case of the sacrifice comprising
three sacrificial cakes, laid down in the text. “Let one offer the sacri-
ficial cake on eleven potsherds to Indra, the king, to Indra, the
over-lord, to Indra, the self-ruler” (Tait. Saṃ. 2.3.6 2), although the
same Indra is qualified by the attributes of kingship and the rest,
yet as the attributes of kingship, over-lordship and self-rulership
are different from one another, the god himself is taken to have
different forms as qualified by each particular attribute, and as such the
“offerings” of the sacrificial cakes are repeated,—so is the case
1 Vide Chānd. 8.1 ff. See V.K. 3.3.1, for further explanation.
2 The text continues to designate these three epithets thus “Indra, the
king is this (earth); Indra, the over-lord, is this (atmosphere); Indra, the self-
ruler is the yonder (heaven)—. There are three cakes, these worlds are three”.