Vedanta-Sutras Part I · 82 of 103

Adhyaya II: Pada I: Sutras 15-17

But, it is objected, he who maintains the nature of Brahman to be changeless thereby contradicts the fundamental tenet according to which the Lord is the cause of the world, since the doctrine of absolute unity leaves no room for the distinction of a Ruler and something ruled.—This objection we ward off by remarking that omniscience, &c. (i.e. those qualities which belong to Brahman only in so far as it is related to a world) depend on the evolution of the germinal principles called name and form, whose essence is Nescience. The fundamental tenet which we maintain (in accordance with such scriptural passages as, ‘From that Self sprang ether,’ &c.; Taitt. Up. II, 1; is that the creation, sustentation, and reabsorption of the world proceed from an omniscient, omnipotent Lord, not from a non-intelligent pradhâna or any other principle. Thai tenet we have stated in I, 1, 4, and here we do not teach anything contrary to it.—But how, the question may be asked, can you make this last assertion while all the while you maintain the absolute unity and non-duality of the Self?—Listen how. Belonging to the Self, as it were, of the omniscient Lord, there are name and form, the figments of Nescience, not to be defined either as being (i.e. Brahman), nor as different from it 1, the germs of the entire expanse of the phenomenal world, called in Sruti and Smriti the illusion (mâyâ), power (saktî), or nature (prakriti) of the omniscient Lord. Different from them is the omniscient Lord himself, as we learn from scriptural passages such as the following, ‘He who is called ether is the revealer of all forms and names; that within which these forms and names are contained is Brahman’ (Kh. Up. VIII, 14, 1); ‘Let me evolve names and forms’ (Kh. Up. VI, 3, 2); ‘He, the wise one, who having divided all forms and given all names, sits speaking (with those names)’ (Taitt. Âr. III, 12, 7); ‘He who makes the one seed manifold’ (Sve. Up.

VI, l2).—Thus the Lord depends (as Lord) upon the limiting adjuncts of name and form, the products of Nescience; just as the universal ether depends (as limited ether, such as the ether of a jar, &c.) upon the limiting adjuncts in the shape of jars, pots, &c. He (the Lord) stands in the realm of the phenomenal in the relation of a ruler to the so-called gîvas (individual souls) or cognitional Selfs (vigñânâtman), which indeed are one with his own Self—just as the portions of ether enclosed in jars and the like are one with the universal ether—but are limited by aggregates of instruments of action (i.e. bodies) produced from name and form, the presentations of Nescience. Hence the Lord’s being a Lord, his omniscience, his omnipotence, &c.

all depend on the limitation due to the adjuncts whose Self is Nescience; while in reality none of these qualities belong to the Self whose true nature is cleared, by right knowledge, from all adjuncts whatever. Thus Scripture also says, ‘Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else, that is the Infinite’ (Kh. Up. VII, 24, 1); ‘But when the Self only has become all this, how should he see another?’ (Bri. Up. II, 4, 13.) In this manner the Vedânta-texts declare that for him who has reached the state of truth and reality the whole apparent world does not exist. The Bhagavadgîtâ also (‘The Lord is not the cause of actions, or of the capacity of performing actions, or of the connexion of action and fruit; all that proceeds according to its own nature. The Lord receives no one’s sin or merit. Knowledge is enveloped by Ignorance; hence all creatures are deluded;’ Bha. Gî. V, 14; 15) declares that in reality the relation of Ruler and ruled does not exist. That, on the other hand, all those distinctions are valid, as far as the phenomenal world is concerned, Scripture as well as the Bhagavadgîtâ states; compare Bri. Up. IV, 4, 22, ‘He is the Lord of all, the king of all things, the protector of all things; he is a bank and boundary, so that these worlds may not be confounded;’ and Bha. Gî. XVIII, 61, ‘The Lord, O Arguna, is seated in the region of the heart of all beings, turning round all beings, (as though) mounted on a machine, by his delusion.’ The Sûtrakâra also asserts the non-difference of cause and effect only with regard to the state of Reality; while he had, in the preceding Sûtra, where he looked to the phenomenal world, compared Brahman to the ocean, &c., that comparison resting on the assumption of the world of effects not yet having been refuted (i.e. seen to be unreal).—The view of Brahman as undergoing modifications will, moreover, be of use in the devout meditations on the qualified (saguna) Brahman.

Footnotes 320:1 Parinâmavâdam avalambyâpâtato virodham samadhâya vivartavâdam âsritya paramasamâdhânam âha. Ân. Gi.

320:2 Ânanda Giri construes differently: etad uktam iti, paramârthato vigñâtam iti sambandhah.

321:1 Drishteti kadâkid drishtam punar nashtam anityam iti yâvat.—Drishtagrahanasûkitam pratîtikâle#pi sattârâhityam tatraiva hetvantaram âha svarûpeneti. Ân. Gi.

323:1 In the passage alluded to he is called so by implication, being compared to the ‘false-minded’ thief who, knowing himself to be guilty, undergoes the ordeal of the heated hatchet.

324:1 I.e. ordinary experience does not teach us that real effects spring from unreal causes.

325:1 Svapnagâgraddehayor vyabhikâre#pi pratyabhigñânât tadanugatâtmaikyasiddhes kaitanyasya ka dehadharmatve rûpâdivat tadanupalabdhiprasangâd avagates kâbâdhât tadrûpasyâtmano dehadvayâtirekasiddher dehâtrâtmavâdo na yukta ity arthah. Ân. Gi.

326:1 As long as the ‘vyavahâra’ presents itself to our mind, we might feel inclined to assume in Brahman an element of manifoldness whereby to account for the vyavahâra; but as soon as we arrive at true knowledge, the vyavahâra vanishes, and there remains no longer any reason for qualifying in any way the absolute unity of Brahman.

327:1 Tatreti, srishtyâdisrutînâm svârthe phatavaikalye satîti yâvat. Ân. Gi.

328:1 A. Mîmâmsâ principle. A sacrificial act, for instance, is independent when a special result is assigned to it by the sacred texts; an act which is enjoined without such a specification is merely auxiliary to another act.

328:2 According to the Sruti ‘in whatever mode he worships him into that mode he passes himself.’

329:1 Tattvânyatvâbhyâm iti, na hîsvaratvena te nirukyete gadâgadayor abhedâyogât nâpi tato#nyatvena niruktim arhatah svâtantryena sattâsphûrtyasambhavât na hi gadam agadânapekshyam sattâsphûrtimad upalakshyate gadatvabhangaprasangât tasmâd avidyâtmake nâmarûpe ity arthah. Ân. Gi.

15.And because only on the existence (of the cause) (the effect) is observed.

For the following reason also the effect is non-different from the cause, because only when the cause exists the effect is observed to exist, not when it does not exist. For instance, only when the clay exists the jar is observed to exist, and the cloth only when the threads exist. That it is not a general rule that when one thing exists another is also observed to exist, appears, for instance, from the fact, that a horse which is other (different) from a cow is not observed to exist only when a cow exists. Nor is the jar observed to exist only when the potter exists; for in that case non-difference does not exist, although the relation between the two is that of an operative cause and its effect 1.—But—it may be objected—even in the case of things other (i.e. non-identical) we find that the observation of one thing regularly depends on the existence of another; smoke, for instance, is observed only when fire exists.—We reply that this is untrue, because sometimes smoke is observed even after the fire has been extinguished; as, for instance, in the case of smoke being kept by herdsmen in jars.—Well, then—the objector will say—let us add to smoke a certain qualification enabling us to say that smoke of such and such a kind 2 does not exist unless fire exists.—Even thus, we reply, your objection is not valid, because we declare that the reason for assuming the non-difference of cause and effect is the fact of the internal organ (buddhi) being affected (impressed) by cause and effect jointly 3. And that does not take place in the case of fire and smoke.—Or else we have to read (in the Sûtra) ‘bhâvât,’ and to translate, ‘and on account of the existence or observation.’ The non-difference of cause and effect results not only from Scripture but also from the existence of perception. For the non-difference of the two is perceived, for instance, in an aggregate of threads, where we do not perceive a thing called ‘cloth,’ in addition to the threads, but merely threads running lengthways and crossways. So again, in the threads we perceive finer threads (the aggregate of which is identical with the grosser threads), in them again finer threads, and so on. On the ground of this our perception we conclude that the finest parts which we can perceive are ultimately identical with their causes, viz. red, white, and black (the colours of fire, water, and earth, according to Kh. Up. VI, 4); those, again, with air, the latter with ether, and ether with Brahman, which is one and without a second. That all means of proof lead back to Brahman (as the ultimate cause of the world; not to pradhâna, &c.), we have already explained.

Footnotes 331:1 So that from the instance of the potter and the jar we cannot conclude that the relation of clay and the jar is only that of nimitta and naimittika, not that of non-difference.

331:2 For instance, smoke extending in a long line whose base is connected with some object on the surface of the earth.

331:3 I.e. (as Ân. Gi. explains) because we assume the relation of cause and effect not merely on the ground of the actual existence of one thing depending on that upon another, but on the additional ground of the mental existence, the consciousness of the one not being possible without the consciousness of the other.—Tadbhâvânuvidhâyibhâvatvam tadbhânânuvidhâyibhânatvam kâ kâryasya kâranânanyatve hetur dhûmaviseshasya kâgnibhâvânuvidhâyibhâvatve#pi na tadbhânânuvidhâyibhânatvam agnibhânasya dhûmabhânâdhînatvât.

16.And on account of that which is posterior (i. e. the effect) being that which is.

For the following reason also the effect is to be considered as non-different (from the cause). That which is posterior in time, i.e. the effect, is declared by Scripture to have, previous to its actual beginning, its Being in the cause, by the Self of the cause merely. For in passages like,’ In the beginning, my dear, this was that only which is’ (Kh. Up. VI, 2, 3); and, ‘Verily, in the beginning this was Self, one only’ (Ait. Âr. II, 4, i, i), the effect which is denoted by the word ‘this’ appears in grammatical co-ordination with (the word denoting) the cause (from which it appears that both inhere in the same substratum). A thing, on the other hand, which does not exist in another thing by the Self of the latter is not produced from that other thing; for instance, oil is not produced from sand. Hence as there is non-difference before the production (of the effect), we understand that the effect even after having been produced continues to be non-different from the cause. As the cause, i e. Brahman, is in all time neither more nor less than that which is, so the effect also, viz. the world, is in all time only that which is. But that which is is one only; therefore the effect is non-different from the cause.

17.If it be said that on account of being denoted as that which is not (the effect does) not (exist before it is actually produced); (we reply) not so, (because the term ‘that which is not’ denotes) another quality (merely); (as appears) from the complementary sentence.