Going near what is to be measured, inferred from the characteristics heard,
Whereby, 'So this is the form of a deer,' this is fully known by analogy.
Commentary
In the previous verse Narayana Guru explained how we are able to understand ends and means or cause and effect. We understand a fire is near at hand when it becomes casually linked with its effect which is the smoke we see. In this verse we are dealing directly with the characteristics of an object that has previously been described to us, and when seeing the object, in this case an animal, or more specifically a deer, we know at once what is before us.
Because we have the ability to remember and store facts away, we are able to understand through analogy and inference. Inferential wisdom is knowledge about one existing entity derived from the knowledge of another existing entity which is part of the first entity we are perceiving. Analogical wisdom is knowledge about one existing entity derived from the characteristics of that existing entity that we have had described to us.
It is because of the memory faculty and our ability to intelligently refer to the store of facts at our disposal that we understand by inference and analogy. The memory faculty and its use is the common ground for inference and analogy, but both are conditioned forms of wisdom. If one objects to this and says that in some of the Upanishads and other spiritual texts we are advised to "Remember the Absolute," we answer this way. What is remembered by the mind in all forms of conditioned wisdom is what is placed down as name and form, and as such belong to the relative and not the Absolute. The dictum "Remember the Absolute," is a reminder that the Absolute itself is beyond name and form, as well as mind and memory, and as such is unconditioned Ultimate Reality.