The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c39.s5.19

v2.c39.s5.19

Reasoning, indeed, we find, but of a peculiar character. Its logical value consists merely in its systematic form, marked by the use of the particles⁵ *vai* and *khalu vai*, the former of which marks the general principle asserted as the basis of the reasoning, the latter the identification which renders the general principle apposite. Thus, if it is necessary to explain why during the consecration the person consecrated has milk as his sole food, the principle⁶ is asserted, ‘By milk indeed (*vai*) embryos wax’; the application follows, ‘Now indeed (*khalu vai*) the consecrated person is as it were an embryo’, and the conclusion is arrived at, ‘In that he has milk as his food, he causes himself to wax.’ Or again¹ we have, ‘By means of the Stoma the gods prosper in this world; the Vātsapra is a counterpart of the Stoma; in that he pays homage with the Vātsapra, so does he win prosperity in this world.’ The principles and their application alike rest on mere assertion, and it is seldom that they are self-evident. Naturally, when deductive processes are so feebly represented, there is no effort at induction, which is found only in the Upaniṣads, and even then merely in the form of arguments which exhaust a series of possibilities, assumed, not proved, to be exhaustive, and so assumed tacitly, no expression of the assumption being requisite. There is a further advance in the Pāli canon, but that is of still later date.²