विचक्षणोऽरूरुचद्वि दिवो रोचना कविः | राजा पवित्रमत्येति रोरुवद्दिवः पीयूषं दुहते नृचक्षसः || and tells us about the stars and celestial luminaries dotting the sky shining because of the light of the self-effulgent Brahman shining brightly revealing everything and providing strength and stability (अधिद्यामस्थात्),who is pure and the source of amrita (पीयूषं) desired by the learned people (नृचक्षसः), who is the giver of happiness and who is the deliverer being the only source of immortality.201-203 Vedanta contention Vedantasara explains that the subject (visheya) is the identity of the individual self and Brahman, which is of the nature of Pure Intelligence (wherein all ideas of separation and variety are effaced) and is to be realized – सर्वे वेदा यत् पदमामनन्ति – That goal which all the Vedas declare (Katha Upanishad I.ii.15), and that the connection (sambandha) is the relation between that identity which is to be realized and the evidence of the Upanishads that establishes it, as between a thing to be known and that which tells of it.p.16 sankara states that the notion of a multitude of souls is valid only at the level of the empirical world. While the Atman stays within the limits of the body, emotions and intellect, there cannot be any dissolution, any absolute unity (sarvarthā- aikyam) with Brahman; the soul is only the reflection of the higher ātman. There is only one reality. That about which the cognition does not change is sat – real and that about which cognition keeps changing or is negated is asat – unreal; the Atman or Brahman alone being unchangeable and un-negatable is the only sat or Reality. Objections According to Madhavacharya, aikyam cannot be real at all; if it were, the absolutism would have vanished. The Absolute is the only reality, aikyam cannot be another reality. And, Nagarjuna explains – if there were to be identity of cause and effect, then there would be oneness of producer and the produce; if there were to be difference between cause and effect, then the cause would be equal to a non-cause. References Rigveda Hindu philosophical concepts Vedanta Upanishadic concepts Buddhist philosophical concepts