The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya Part 12

[Footnote 70: If the fruits of the two /s/astras were not of a different nature, there would be no reason for the distinction of two /s/astras; if they are of a different nature, it cannot be said that the knowledge of Brahman is enjoined for the purpose of final release, in the same way as sacrifices are enjoined for the purpose of obtaining the heavenly world and the like.]

[Footnote 71: The first pa.s.sage shows that the Self is not joined to the gross body; the second that it is not joined to the subtle body; the third that is independent of either.]

[Footnote 72: ananda Giri omits 'ata/h/.' His comment is: p/ri/thagjij/n/asavishayatva/k/ /k/a dharmadyasp/ri/sh/t/atva/m/ brahma/n/o yuktam ityaha; tad iti; ata/h/ /s/abdapa/th/e dharmadyaspa.r.s.e karmaphalavailaksba/n/ya/m/ hetuk/ri/tam.--The above translation follows Govindananda's first explanation. Tat kaivalyam brahmaiva karmaphalavilaksha/n/atvad ity artha/h/.]

[Footnote 73: Sampat. Sampan namalpe vastuny alambane samanyena kena/k/in mahato vastuna/h/ sampadanam. ananda Giri.]

[Footnote 74: In which pa.s.sage the mind, which may be called endless on account of the infinite number of modifications it undergoes, is identified with the Vi/s/vedevas, which thereby const.i.tute the chief object of the meditation; the fruit of the meditation being immortality.

The ident.i.ty of the Self with Brahman, on the other hand, is real, not only meditatively imagined, on account of the attribute of intelligence being common to both.]

[Footnote 75: Adhyasa/h/ /s/astratoitasmi/m/s taddhi/h/. Sampadi sampadyamanasya pradhanyenanudhyanam, adhyase tu alambanasyeti vi/s/esha/h/. ananda Giri.]

[Footnote 76: Air and breath each absorb certain things, and are, therefore, designated by the same term 'absorber.' Seya/m/ sa/m/vargad/ri/sh/t/ir vayau pra/n/e /k/a da/s/a/s/agata/m/ jagad dar/s/ayati yatha jivatmani b/rim/ha/n/akriyaya brahmad/ri/sh/t/iram/ri/tatvayaphalayakalpata iti. Bhamati.]

[Footnote 77: The b.u.t.ter used in the upa/ms/uyaja is ceremonially purified by the wife of the sacrificer looking at it; so, it might be said, the Self of him who meditates on Brahman (and who as kart/ri/--agent--stands in a subordinate anga-relation to the karman of meditation) is merely purified by the cognition of its being one with Brahman.]

[Footnote 78: An hypothesis which might be proposed for the purpose of obviating the imputation to moksha of non-eternality which results from the two preceding hypotheses.]

[Footnote 79: Viz. things to be originated (for instance, gha/t/a/m/ karoti), things to be obtained (grama/m/ ga/kkh/ati), things to be modified (suvar/n/a/m/ ku/nd/ala/m/ karoti), and things to be ceremonially purified (vrihin prokshati).]

[Footnote 80: Whence it follows that it is not something to be avoided like transitory things.]

[Footnote 81: That, for instance, in the pa.s.sage 'he is to sacrifice with Soma,' the word 'soma,' which does not denote an action, is devoid of sense.]

[Footnote 82: I.e. for the purpose of showing that the pa.s.sages conveying information about Brahman as such are justified. You have (the objector maintains) proved hitherto only that pa.s.sages containing information about existent things are admissible, if those things have a purpose; but how does all this apply to the information about Brahman of which no purpose has been established?]

[Footnote 83: It is 'naturally established' because it has natural motives--not dependent on the injunctions of the Veda, viz. pa.s.sion and the like.]

[Footnote 84: Elsewhere, i.e. outside the Veda.]

[Footnote 85: The above discussion of the prohibitory pa.s.sages of the Veda is of a very scholastic nature, and various clauses in it are differently interpreted by the different commentators. /S/[email protected] endeavours to fortify his doctrine, that not all parts of the Veda refer to action by an appeal to prohibitory pa.s.sages which do not enjoin action but abstinence from action. The legitimacy of this appeal might be contested on the ground that a prohibitory pa.s.sage also, (as, for instance, 'a Brahma/n/a is not to be killed,') can be explained as enjoining a positive action, viz. some action opposed in nature to the one forbidden, so that the quoted pa.s.sage might be interpreted to mean 'a determination, &c. of not killing a Brahma/n/a is to be formed;' just as we understand something positive by the expression 'a non-Brahma/n/a,' viz. some man who is a kshattriya or something else. To this the answer is that, wherever we can, we must attribute to the word 'not' its primary sense which is the absolute negation of the word to which it is joined; so that pa.s.sages where it is joined to words denoting action must be considered to have for their purport the entire absence of action. Special cases only are excepted, as the one alluded to in the text where certain prohibited actions are enumerated under the heading of vows; for as a vow is considered as something positive, the non-doing of some particular action must there be understood as intimating the performance of some action of an opposite nature. The question as to the various meanings of the particle 'not' is discussed in all treatises on the Purva Mima/m/sa; see, for instance, Arthasamgraha, translation, p. 39 ff.]

[Footnote 86: The Self is the agent in a sacrifice, &c. only in so far as it imagines itself to be joined to a body; which imagination is finally removed by the cognition of Brahman.]

[Footnote 87: The figurative Self, i.e. the imagination that wife, children, possessions, and the like are a man's Self; the false Self, i.e. the imagination that the Self acts, suffers, enjoys, &c.]

[Footnote 88: I.e. the apparent world with all its distinctions.]

[Footnote 89: The words in parentheses are not found in the best ma.n.u.scripts.]

[Footnote 90: The most exalted of the three const.i.tuent elements whose state of equipoise const.i.tutes the pradhana.]

[Footnote 91: Knowledge can arise only where Goodness is predominant, not where the three qualities mutually counterbalance one another.]

[Footnote 92: The excess of Sattva in the Yogin would not enable him to rise to omniscience if he did not possess an intelligent principle independent of Sattva.]

[Footnote 93: Ananda Giri comments as follows: paroktanupapatlim nirasitum p/rikkh/ati idam iti. Prak/ri/tyarthabhavat pratyayarthabhavad va brahma/n/o sarvaj/n/ateti pra/s/nam eva praka/t/ayati katham iti.

Prathama/m/ pratyaha yasyeti. Ukta/m/ vyatirckadvara viyz/rin/oti anityatve hiti. Dvitiya/m/ /s/[email protected] j/n/aneti. Svato nityasyapi j/n/anasya tattadarthava/kkh/innasya karyatvat tatra svatantryam pratyayartho brahma/n/a/h/ sidhyat.i.ty aha.--The knowledge of Brahman is eternal, and in so far Brahman is not independent with regard to it, but it is independent with regard to each particular act of knowledge; the verbal affix in 'janati' indicating the particularity of the act.]

[Footnote 94: In the second Kha/nd/a of the sixth Prapa/th/aka of the Ch. Up. 'aikshata' is twice used in a figurative sense (with regard to fire and water); it is therefore to be understood figuratively in the third pa.s.sage also where it occurs.]

[Footnote 95: So that, on this latter explanation, it is unnecessary to a.s.sume a figurative sense of the word 'thinking' in any of the three pa.s.sages.]

[Footnote 96: A wicked man meets in a forest a blind person who has lost his way, and implores him to lead him to his village; instead of doing so the wicked man persuades the blind one to catch hold of the tail of an ox, which he promises would lead him to his place. The consequence is that the blind man is, owing to his trustfulness, led even farther astray, and injured by the bushes, &c., through which the ox drags him.]

[Footnote 97: Cp. above, p. 30.]

[Footnote 98: So according to the commentators, not to accept whose guidance in the translation of scholastic definitions is rather hazardous. A simpler translation of the clause might however be given.]

[Footnote 99: With reference to Ch. Up. VI, 8, 2.]

[Footnote 100: The wise one, i.e. the highest Self; which as jivatman is conversant with the names and forms of individual things.]

[Footnote 101: I.e. it is looked upon as the object of the devotion of the individual souls; while in reality all those souls and Brahman are one.]

[Footnote 102: Qualities, i.e. the attributes under which the Self is meditated on; limiting conditions, i.e. the localities--such as the heart and the like--which in pious meditation are ascribed to the Self.]

[Footnote 103: ananda Giri reads avish/t/asya for avishk/ri/tasya.]

[Footnote 104: Cp. the entire pa.s.sage. All things are manifestations of the highest Self under certain limiting conditions, but occupying different places in an ascending scale. In unsentient things, stones, &c. only the satta, the quality of being manifests itself; in plants, animals, and men the Self manifests itself through the vital sap; in animals and men there is understanding; higher thought in man alone.]

[Footnote 105: ananda Giri on the preceding pa.s.sage beginning from 'thus here also:' na kevala/m/ dvaividhyam brahma/n/a/h/ /s/rutism/ri/tyor eva siddha/m/ ki/m/ tu sutrak/ri/to api matam ity aha, evam iti, /s/rutism/ri/tyor iva prak/ri/te pi /s/astre dvairupyam brahma/n/o bhavati; tatra sopadhikabrahmavishayam antastaddharmadhikara/n/am udaharati adityeti; uktanyaya/m/ tulyade/s/eshu prasarayati evam iti; sopadhikopade/s/avan nirupadhikopade/s/a/m/ dar/s/ayati evam ityadina, atmaj/n/@ana/m/ nir/n/etavyam iti sambandha/h/; [email protected] aha pareti; annamayadyupadhidvarokasya katham paravidyavishayatva/m/ tatraha upadhiti; nir/n/ayakramam aha vakyeti, uktartham adhikara/n/a/m/ kvast.i.ty [email protected]/m/ yatheti.]

[Footnote 106: After which no other Self is mentioned.]

[Footnote 107: The previous proofs were founded on ; the argument which is now propounded is founded on prakara/n/a.]

[Footnote 108: While, in the case of the Selfs consisting of food and so on, a further inner Self is duly mentioned each time. It cannot, therefore, be concluded that the Selfs consisting of food, &c., are likewise identical with the highest Self referred to in the mantra.]

[Footnote 109: Yadi labdha na labdhavya/h/ katha/m/ tarhi paramatmano vastutobhinnena jivatmana paramatma labhyata ity artha/h/. Bhamati.]

[Footnote 110: Yatha paramesvarad bhinno jivatma drash/t/a na bhavaty evam givatmanozpi drash/t/ur na bhinna/h/ parame/s/vara iti, jivasyanirva/k/yarve parame/s/varozpy anirva/k/ya/h/ syad ity ata aha parame/s/varas tv avidyakalpitad iti. Ananda Giri.]

[Footnote 111: The explanation of the anandamaya given hitherto is here recalled, and a different one given. The previous explanation is attributed by Go. an. to the v/ri/ttikara.]

[Footnote 112: In which sense, as shown above, the word anandamaya must be taken if understood to denote Brahman.]

[Footnote 113: I.e. the word translated hitherto by abundance.]

[Footnote 114: See I, 1, 15-19. ]

[Footnote 115: The preceding adhikara/n/a had shown that the five Selfs (consisting of food, mind, and so on), which the Taitt. Up. enumerates, are introduced merely for the purpose of facilitating the cognition of Brahman considered as devoid of all qualities; while that Brahman itself is the real object of knowledge. The present adhikara/n/a undertakes to show that the pa.s.sage about the golden person represents the savi/s/esha Brahman as the object of devout meditation.]

[Footnote 116: So that the real giver of the gifts bestowed by princes on poets and singers is Brahman.]

[Footnote 117: Or else 'that which is within forms and names.']

[Footnote 118: Viz. as intimating it. Thus an. Gi. and Go. an. against the accent of /rik/a/h/. Saya/n/a explains /rik/a/h/ as genitive.]