We grant that it cannot be a case of _vidhi_, for it might have been adopted on other grounds; but not even Indra with his thunderbolt could make us lose our hold of the other alternative that it is a case of _niyama_. In the sentence, "The Veda is to be read," the affix _tavya_ expresses an enforcing power in the word,[252] which is to be rendered visible by a corresponding action in man, bringing a certain effect into existence; and this enforcing power seeks some corresponding end which is connected with the man's creative effort. Now it cannot be the act itself of reading, as suggested by the whole word _adhyetavya_, which it thus seeks as an end; for this act of reading, thus expressed by the word, could never be regarded as an end, since it is a laborious operation of the voice and mind, consisting in the articulate utterance of the portion read. Nor could the portion read, as suggested by the whole sentence, be regarded as the end. For the mass of words called "Veda," which is what we really mean by the words "portion read," being eternal and omnipresent, could never fulfil the conditions of the four "fruits of action," production, &c.[253] Therefore the only true end which remains to us is the knowledge of the meaning, as obtained by carrying out the sense of the words of the injunction. According to the old rule, "He has the right who has the want, the power, and the wit," those who are aiming to understand certain things, as the new and full moon sacrifices, use their daily reading to learn the truth about them. And the injunction for reading, since it virtually excludes the reading of written books, &c. [from the well-known technical sense of the word "read" when used in this connection], conveys the idea that the reading the Veda enjoined has a consecrated character [as taught by a duly authorised teacher]. Therefore, as the principal _apúrva_, produced by the great new and full moon sacrifices, necessitates and establishes the subordinate _apúrvas_ produced by the inferior sacrificial acts, as unhusking the rice, &c., so the mass of _apúrva_ produced by all the sacrifices necessitates and establishes a previous _apúrva_ produced by the restricting injunction (_niyama_), which prescribes reading the Veda as the means to know how to perform these sacrifices. If you hesitate to concede that a _niyama_ could have this future influence called _apúrva_, the same doubt might equally invalidate the efficacy of a _vidhi_ [as the two stand on the same level as to their enjoining power]. Nor is the supposition a valid one that heaven is the fruit, according to the analogy of the _Viśvajit_ offering, since, if there is a present and visible fruit in the form of a knowledge of the meaning of the sacred text, it is improper to suppose any other future and unseen fruit. Thus it has been said--