"Whatsoever other form of evidence, companioned by revelation and tradition,
"Acquires the rank of probation, about this there can be no hesitation."
What a Śástra (or system of sacred institutes) is, has been stated in the Skanda-puráṇa:—
"The Rig-veda, the Yajur-veda, the Sáma-veda, the Atharva-veda, the Mahábhárata, the Pañcha-rátra, and the original Rámáyaṇa, are called Śástras.
"That also which is conformable to these is called Śástra.
"Any aggregate of composition other than this is a heterodoxy."
According, then, to the rule that the sense of the sacred institutes is not to be taken from other sources than these, the Monist view, viz., that the purport of the texts of the Veda relates not to the duality learnt from those but to non-duality, is rejected: for as there is no proof of a God from inference, so there is no proof of the duality between God and other things from inference. Therefore there can be in these texts no mere explanation of such duality, and the texts must be understood to indicate the duality. Hence it is that it has said:—
"I ever laud Náráyaṇa, the one being to be known from genuine revelation, who transcends the perishable and the imperishable, without imperfections, and of inexhaustible excellences."
It has thus been evinced that the sacred institutes are the evidence of (the existence of) this (ultimate reality, Brahman). (The fourth aphorism is): But that is from the construction. In regard to this, the commencement and other elements are stated to be the marks of the construction, in the Bṛihat-saṃhitá:—
"Commencement, conclusion, reiteration, novelty, profit, eulogy, and demonstration, are the marks by which the purport is ascertained."