Vedanta-Sutras Part I · 28 of 103

Adhyaya I: Pada I: Sutra 5

28:1 The first passage 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.

28:2 Ânanda Giri omits ‘atah.’ His comment is: prithaggigñâsâvishayatvâk ka dharmâdyasprishtatvam brahmano yuktam ityâha tad iti atah sabdapâthe dharmâdyasparse karmaphalavailaksbanyam hetûkritam.—The above translation follows Govindânanda’s first explanation. Tat kaivalyam brahmaiva karmaphalavilakshanatvâd ity arthah.

30:1 Sampat. Sampan nâmâlpe vastuny âlambane sâmânyena kenakin mahato vastunah sampâdanam. Ânanda Giri.

30:2 In which passage the mind, which may be called endless on account of the infinite number of modifications it undergoes, is identified with the Visvedevas, which thereby constitute the chief object of the meditation; the fruit of the meditation being immortality. The identity 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.

30:3 Adhyâsah sâstrato#tasmims taddhîh. Sampadi sampâdyamânasya prâdhânyenânudhyânam, adhyâse tu âlambanasyeti viseshah. Ânanda Giri.

30:4 Air and breath each absorb certain things, and are, therefore, designated by the same term ‘absorber.’ Seyam samvargadrishtir vâyau prâne ka dasâsâgatam gagad darsayati yathâ gîvâtmani brimhanakriyayâ brahmadrishtiramritatvâyaphalâya kalpata iti. Bhâmati.

31:1 The butter used in the upâmsuyâga 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 kartri—agent—stands in a subordinate anga-relation to the karman of meditation) is merely purified by the cognition of its being one with Brahman.

32:1 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.

36:1 Viz. things to be originated (for instance, ghatam karoti), things to be obtained (grâmam gakkhati), things to be modified (suvarnam kundalam karoti), and things to be ceremonially purified (vrîhîn prokshati).

37:1 Whence it follows that it is not something to be avoided like transitory things.

38:1 That, for instance, in the passage ‘he is to sacrifice with Soma,’ the word ‘soma,’ which does not denote an action, is devoid of sense.

38:2 I.e. for the purpose of showing that the passages conveying information about Brahman as such are justified. You have (the objector maintains) proved hitherto only that passages 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?

39:1 It is ‘naturally established’ because it has natural motives—not dependent on the injunctions of the Veda, viz. passion and the like.

39:2 Elsewhere, i.e. outside the Veda.

39:3 The above discussion of the prohibitory passages of the Veda is of a very scholastic nature, and various clauses in it are differently interpreted by the different commentators. Sankara endeavours to fortify his doctrine, that not all parts of the Veda refer to action by an appeal to prohibitory passages which do not enjoin action but abstinence from action. The legitimacy of this appeal might be contested on the ground that a prohibitory passage also, (as, for instance, ‘a Brâhmana 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 passage might be interpreted to mean ‘a determination, &c.

of not killing a Brâhmana is to be formed;’ just as we understand something positive by the expression ‘a non-Brâhmana,’ 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 passages 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 Pûrvâ Mîmâmsâ; see, for instance, Arthasamgraha, translation, ff.

42:1 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.

45:1 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.

45:2 I.e. the apparent world with all its distinctions.

45:3 The words in parentheses are not found in the best manuscripts.

46:1 The most exalted of the three constituent elements whose state of equipoise constitutes the pradhâna.

5.On account of seeing (i. e. thinking being attributed in the Upanishads to the cause of the world; the pradhâna) is not (to be identified with the cause indicated by the Upanishads; for) it is not founded on Scripture.

It is impossible to find room in the Vedânta-texts for the non-intelligent pradhâna, the fiction of the Sânkhyas; because it is not founded on Scripture. How so? Because the quality of seeing, i. e. thinking, is in Scripture ascribed to the cause. For the passage, Kh. Up. VI, 2, (which begins: ‘Being only, my dear, this was in the beginning, one only, without a second,’ and goes on, ‘It thought (saw), may I be many, may I grow forth. It sent forth fire,’) declares that this world differentiated by name and form, which is there denoted by the word ‘this,’ was before its origination identical with the Self of that which is and that the principle denoted by the term ‘the being’ (or ‘that which is’) sent forth fire and the other elements after having thought. The following passage also (‘Verily in the beginning all this was Self, one only; there was nothing else blinking whatsoever. He thought, shall I send forth worlds? He sent forth these worlds,’ Ait. Âr. II, 4, 1, 2) declares the creation to have had thought for its antecedent. In another passage also (Pr. Up. VI, 3) it is said of the person of sixteen parts, ‘He thought, &c. He sent forth Prâna.’ By ‘seeing’ (i.e. the verb ‘seeing’ exhibited in the Sûtra) is not meant that particular verb only, but any verbs which have a cognate sense; just as the verb ‘to sacrifice’ is used to denote any kind of offering. Therefore other passages also whose purport it is to intimate that an all-knowing Lord is the cause of the world are to be quoted here, as, for instance, Mu. Up. I,.1, 9, ‘From him who perceives all and who knows all, whose brooding consists of knowledge, from him is born that Brahman, name and form and food.’

The argumentation of the Sânkhyas that the pradhâna may be called all-knowing on account of knowledge constituting an attribute of the guna Goodness is inadmissible. For as in the pradhâna-condition the three gunas are in a state of equipoise, knowledge which is a quality of Goodness only is not possible 1. Nor can we admit the explanation that the pradhâna is all-knowing because endowed with the capacity for all knowledge. For if, in the condition of equipoise of the gunas, we term the pradhâna all-knowing with reference to the power of knowledge residing in Goodness, we must likewise term it little-knowing, with reference to the power impeding knowledge which resides in Passion and Darkness.

Moreover a modification of Goodness which is not connected with a witnessing (observing) principle (sâkshin) is not called knowledge, and the non-intelligent pradhâna is destitute of such a principle. It is therefore impossible to ascribe to the pradhâna all-knowingness. The case of the Yogins finally does not apply to the point under consideration; for as they possess intelligence, they may, owing to an excess of Goodness in their nature, rise to omniscience 1.—Well then (say those Sânkhyas who believe in the existence of a Lord) let us assume that the pradhâna possesses the quality of knowledge owing to the witnessing principle (the Lord), just as the quality of burning is imparted to an iron ball by fire.—No, we reply; for if this were so, it would be more reasonable to assume that that which is the cause of the pradhâna having the quality of thought i.e. the all-knowing primary Brahman itself is the cause of the world.

The objection that to Brahman also all-knowingness in its primary sense cannot be ascribed because, if the activity of cognition were permanent, Brahman could not be considered as independent with regard to it, we refute as follows. In what way, we ask the Sânkhya, is Brahman’s all-knowingness interfered with by a permanent cognitional activity? To maintain that he, who possesses eternal knowledge capable to throw light on all objects, is not all-knowing, is contradictory. If his knowledge were considered non-permanent, he would know sometimes, and sometimes he would not know; from which it would follow indeed that he is not all-knowing. This fault is however avoided if we admit Brahman’s knowledge to be permanent.—But, it may be objected, on this latter alternative the knower cannot be designated as independent with reference to the act of knowing.—Why not? we reply; the sun also, although his heat and light are permanent, is nevertheless designated as independent when we say, ‘he burns, he gives light 1.’—But, it will again be objected, we say that the sun burns or gives light when he stands in relation to some object to be heated or illuminated; Brahman, on the other hand, stands, before the creation of the world, in no relation to any object of knowledge. The cases are therefore not parallel.—This objection too, we reply, is not valid; for as a matter of fact we speak of the Sun as an agent, saying ‘the sun shines’ even without reference to any object illuminated by him, and hence Brahman also may be spoken of as an agent, in such passages as ‘it thought,’ &c., even without reference to any object of knowledge.

If, however, an object is supposed to be required (‘knowing’ being a transitive verb while ‘shining’ is intransitive), the texts ascribing thought to Brahman will fit all the better.—What then is that object to which the knowledge of the Lord can refer previously to the origin of the world?—Name and form, we reply, which can be defined neither as being identical with Brahman nor as different from it, unevolved but about to be evolved. For if, as the adherents of the Yoga-sâstra assume, the Yogins have a perceptive knowledge of the past and the future through the favour of the Lord; in what terms shall we have to speak of the eternal cognition of the ever pure Lord himself, whose objects are the creation, subsistence, and dissolution of the world!