The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja: Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48
Religion
The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja: Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48
Vedanta
We have thus proved that all cognition is true. The shortcomings of
other views as to the nature of cognition have been set forth at length
by other philosophers, and we therefore do not enter on that topic. What
need is there, in fact, of lengthy proofs? Those who acknowledge the
validity of the different means of knowledge, perception, and so on, and--
what is vouched for by sacred tradition--the existence of a highest
Brahman--free from all shadow of imperfection, of measureless excellence,
comprising within itself numberless auspicious qualities, all-knowing,
immediately realising all its purposes--, what should they not be able
to prove? That holy highest Brahman--while producing the entire world as
an object of fruition for the individual souls, in agreement with their
respective good and ill deserts--creates certain things of such a nature
as to become common objects of consciousness, either pleasant or
unpleasant, to all souls together, while certain other things are
created in such a way as to be perceived only by particular persons, and
to persist for a limited time only. And it is this distinction--viz. of
things that are objects of general consciousness, and of things that are
not so--which makes the difference between what is called 'things
sublating' and 'things sublated.'--Everything is explained hereby.
Neither Scripture nor Smriti and Purâna teach Nescience.
The assertion that Nescience--to be defined neither as that which is nor
as that which is not--rests on the authority of Scripture is untrue. In
passages such as 'hidden by the untrue' (Ch. Up. VIII, 3, 2), the word
'untrue' does not denote the Undefinable; it rather means that which is
different from 'rita,' and this latter word--as we see from the passage
'enjoying the rita' (Ka. Up. 1,3, 1)--denotes such actions as aim at no
worldly end, but only at the propitiation of the highest Person, and
thus enable the devotee to reach him. The word 'anrita' therefore
denotes actions of a different kind, i.e. such as aim at worldly results
and thus stand in the way of the soul reaching Brahman; in agreement
with the passage 'they do not find that Brahma-world, for they are
carried away by anrita' (Ch. Up. VIII, 3, 2). Again, in the text 'Then
there was neither non-Being nor Being' (Ri. Samh. X, 129, 1), the terms
'being' and 'non-being' denote intelligent and non-intelligent beings in
their distributive state. What that text aims at stating is that
intelligent and non-intelligent beings, which at the time of the
origination of the world are called 'sat' and 'tyat' (Taitt. Up. II, 6),
are, during the period of reabsorption, merged in the collective
totality of non-intelligent matter which the text denotes by the term
'darkness' (Ri. Samh. X, 129, 3). There is thus no reference whatever to
something 'not definable either as being or non-being': the terms
'being' and 'non-being' are applied to different mode; of being at
different times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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