Vedanta-Sutras Part I · 50 of 103

Adhyaya I: Pada III: Sutra 8

With reference to that which is the abode of heaven, earth, and so on, the text says, ‘Two birds, inseparable friends,’ &c. (Mu. Up. III, 1, 1). This passage describes the two states of mere standing, i.e. mere presence, and of eating, the clause, ‘One of them eats the sweet fruit,’ referring to the eating, i.e. the fruition of the results of works, and the clause, ‘The other one looks on without eating,’ describing the condition of mere inactive presence. The two states described, viz. of mere presence on the one hand and of enjoyment on the other hand, show that the Lord and the individual soul are referred to. Now there is room for this statement which represents the Lord as separate from the individual soul, only if the passage about the abode of heaven and earth likewise refers to the Lord; for in that case only there exists a continuity of topic. On any other supposition the second passage would contain a statement about something not connected with the general topic, and would therefore be entirely uncalled for.—But, it may be objected, on your interpretation also the second passage makes an uncalled-for statement, viz. in so far as it represents the individual soul as separate from the Lord.—Not so, we reply. It is nowhere the purpose of Scripture to make statements regarding the individual soul. From ordinary experience the individual soul, which in the different individual bodies is joined to the internal organs and other limiting adjuncts, is known to every one as agent and enjoyer, and we therefore must not assume that it is that which Scripture aims at setting forth. The Lord, on the other hand, about whom ordinary experience tells us nothing, is to be considered as the special topic of all scriptural passages, and we therefore cannot assume that any passage should refer to him merely casually 1.—

That the mantra ‘two birds,’ &c. speaks of the Lord—and the individual soul we have already shown under I, 2, 11.—And if, according to the interpretation given in the Paingi-upanishad (and quoted under I, 2, 11), the verse is understood to refer to the internal organ (sattva) and the individual soul (not to the individual soul and the Lord), even then there is no contradiction (between that interpretation and our present averment that the individual soul is not the abode of heaven and earth).—How so?—Here (i.e.

in the present Sûtra and the Sûtras immediately preceding) it is denied that the individual soul which, owing to its imagined connexion with the internal organ and other limiting adjuncts, has a separate existence in separate bodies—its division being analogous to the division of universal space into limited spaces such as the spaces within jars and the like—is that which is called the abode of heaven and earth. That same soul, on the other hand, which exists in all bodies, if considered apart from the limiting adjuncts, is nothing else but the highest Self.

Just as the spaces within jars, if considered apart from their limiting conditions, are merged in universal space, so the individual soul also is incontestably that which is denoted as the abode of heaven and earth, since it (the soul) cannot really be separate from the highest Self. That it is not the abode of heaven and earth, is therefore said of the individual soul in so far only as it imagines itself to be connected with the internal organ and so on. Hence it follows that the highest Self is the abode of heaven, earth, and so on.—The same conclusion has already been arrived at under I, 2, 21; for in the passage concerning the source of all beings (which passage is discussed under the Sûtra quoted) we meet with the clause, ‘In which heaven and earth and the sky are woven.’ In the present adhikarana the subject is resumed for the sake of further elucidation.

Footnotes 160:1 If the individual soul were meant by the abode of heaven, earth, &c., the statement regarding Îsvara made in the passage about the two birds would be altogether abrupt, and on that ground objectionable. The same difficulty does not present itself with regard to the abrupt mention of the individual soul which is well known to everybody, and to which therefore casual allusions may be made.—I subjoin Ânanda Giri’s commentary on the entire passage: Gîvasyopâdhyaikyenâvivakshitatvât tadgñâne#pi sarvagñânasiddhes tasyâyatanatvâdyabhâve hetvantaram vâkyam ity âsankya sûtrena pariharati kutasketyâdinâ. Tad vyâkashte dyubhvâdîti. Nirdesam eva darsayati tayor iti. Vibhaktyartham âha tâbhyâm keti. Sthityesvarasyâdanâg gîvasamgrahe#pi katham îsvarasyaiva visvâyatanatvam tadâha yadîti. Îsvarasyâyanatvenâprakritatve gîvaprithakkathanânupapattir ity uktam eva vyatirekadvârâha anyatheti. Gîvasyâyatanatvenâprakritatve tulyânupapattir iti sankate nanviti. Tasyaikyârtham lokasiddhasyânuvâdatvân naivam ity âha neti. Gîvasyâpûrvatvâbhâvenâpratipâdyatvam eva prakatayati kshetragño hîti. Îsvarasyâpi lokavâdisiddhatvâd apratipâdyatety âsankyâha îsvaras tv iti.

8.The bhûman (is Brahman), as the instruction about it is additional to that about the state of deep sleep (i.e. the vital air which remains awake even in the state of deep sleep).

We read (Kh. Up. VII, 23; 24), ‘That which is much (bhûman) we must desire to understand.—Sir, I desire to understand it.—Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else, that is what is much (bhûman). Where one sees something else, hears something else, understands something else, that is the Little.’—Here the doubt arises whether that which is much is the vital air (prâna) or the highest Self.—Whence the doubt?—The word ‘bhûman,’ taken by itself, means the state of being much, according to its derivation as taught by Pânini, VI, 4, 158. Hence there is felt the want of a specification showing what constitutes the Self of that muchness. Here there presents itself at first the approximate passage, ‘The vital air is more than hope’ (Kh. Up. VII, 15, 1), from which we may conclude that the vital air is bhûman.—On the other hand, we meet at the beginning of the chapter, where the general topic is stated, with the following passage, ‘I have heard from men like you that he who knows the Self overcomes grief. I am in grief. Do, Sir, help me over this grief of mine;’ from which passage it would appear that the bhûman is the highest Self.—Hence there arises a doubt as to which of the two alternatives is to be embraced, and which is to be set aside.

The pûrvapakshin maintains that the bhûman is the vital air, since there is found no further series of questions and answers as to what is more. For while we meet with a series of questions and answers (such as, ‘Sir, is there something which is more than a name?’—‘Speech is more than name.’—‘Is there something which is more than speech?’—‘ Mind is more than speech’), which extends from name up to vital air, we do not meet with a similar question and answer as to what might be more than vital air (such as, ‘Is there something which is more than vital air?’—‘Such and such a thing is more than vital air’). The text rather at first declares at length (in the passage, ‘The vital air is more than hope,’ &c.) that the vital air is more than all the members of the series from name up to hope; it then acknowledges him who knows the vital air to be an ativâdin, i.e. one who makes a statement surpassing the preceding statements (in the passage, ‘Thou art an ativâdin.

He may say I am an ativâdin; he need not deny it’); and it thereupon (in the passage, ‘But he in reality is an ativâdin who declares something beyond by means of the True’ 1),—not leaving off, but rather continuing to refer to the quality of an ativâdin which is founded on the vital air,—proceeds, by means of the series beginning with the True, to lead over to the bhûman; so that we conclude the meaning to be that the vital air is the bhûman.—But, if the bhûman is interpreted to mean the vital air, how have we to explain the passage in which the bhûman is characterised.

‘Where one sees nothing else?’ &c.—As, the pûrvapakshin replies, in the state of deep sleep we observe a cessation of all activity, such as seeing, &c., on the part of the organs merged in the vital air, the vital air itself may be characterised by a passage such as, ‘Where one sees nothing else.’ Similarly, another scriptural passage (Pra. Up.

IV, 2; 3) describes at first (in the words, ‘He does not hear, he does not see,’ &c.) the state of deep sleep as characterised by the cessation of the activity of all bodily organs, and then by declaring that in that state the vital air, with its five modifications, remains awake (‘The fires of the prânas are awake in that town’), shows the vital air to occupy the principal position in the state of deep sleep.—That passage also, which speaks of the bliss of the bhûman (‘The bhûman is bliss,’ Kh. Up. VII, 23), can be reconciled with our explanation, because Pra. Up. IV, 6 declares bliss to attach to the state of deep sleep (‘Then that god sees no dreams and at that time that happiness arises in his body’).—Again, the statement, ‘The bhûman is immortality’ (Kh. Up. VII, 24, 1), may likewise refer to the vital air; for another scriptural passage says, ‘Prâna is immortality’ (Kau. Up. III, 2).—But how can the view according to which the bhûman is the vital air be reconciled with the fact that in the beginning of the chapter the knowledge of the Self is represented as the general topic (‘He who knows the Self overcomes grief,’ &c.)?—By the Self there referred to, the pûrvapakshin replies, nothing else is meant but the vital air. For the passage, ‘The vital air is father, the vital air is mother, the vital air is brother, the vital air is sister, the vital air is teacher, the vital air is Brâhmana’ (Kh. Up. VII, 15, 1), represents the vital air as the Self of everything. As, moreover, the passage, ‘As the spokes of a wheel rest in the nave, so all this rests in prâna,’ declares the prâna to be the Self of all—by means of a comparison with the spokes and the nave of a wheel—the prâna may be conceived under the form of bhûman, i.e. plenitude.—Bhûman, therefore, means the vital air.

To this we make the following reply.—Bhûman can mean the highest Self only, not the vital air.—Why?—‘On account of information being given about it, subsequent to bliss.’ The word ‘bliss’ (samprasâda) means the state of deep sleep, as may be concluded, firstly, from the etymology of the word (‘In it he, i.e. man, is altogether pleased—samprasîdati’)—and, secondly, from the fact of samprasâda being mentioned in the Brihadâranyaka together with the state of dream and the waking state. And as in the state of deep sleep the vital air remains awake, the word ‘samprasâda’ is employed in the Sûtra to denote the vital air; so that the Sûtra means, ‘on account of information being given about the bhûman, subsequently to (the information given about) the vital air.’ If the bhûman were the vital air itself, it would be a strange proceeding to make statements about the bhûman in addition to the statements about the vital air. For in the preceding passages also we do not meet, for instance, with a statement about name subsequent to the previous statement about name (i.e. the text does not say ‘name is more than name’), but after something has been said about name, a new statement is made about speech, which is something different from name (i. e. the text says, ‘Speech is more than name’), and so on up to the statement about vital air, each subsequent statement referring to something other than the topic of the preceding one. We therefore conclude that the bhûman also, the statement about which follows on the statement about the vital air, is something other than the vital air.