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
VIII, 7, 1), and so on.
But how, a question may be asked, can we decide, on your interpretation
of the text, which of the two terms is meant to make an original
assertion with regard to the other?--The question does not arise, we
reply; for the text does not mean to make an original assertion at all,
the truth which it states having already been established by the
preceding clause, 'In that all this world has its Self.' This clause
does make an original statement--in agreement with the principle that
'Scripture has a purport with regard to what is not established by other
means'--that is, it predicates of 'all this,' i.e. this entire world
together with all individual souls, that 'that,' i.e. Brahman is the
Self of it. The reason of this the text states in a previous passage,
'All these creatures have their root in that which is, their dwelling
and their rest in that which is'; a statement which is illustrated by an
earlier one (belonging to a different section), viz. 'All this is
Brahman; let a man meditate with calm mind on this world as beginning,
ending, and breathing in Brahman' (Ch. Up. III. 14, 1). Similarly other
texts also teach that the world has its Self in Brahman, in so far as
the whole aggregate of intelligent and non-intelligent beings
constitutes Brahman's body. Compare 'Abiding within, the ruler of beings,
the Self of all'; 'He who dwells in the earth, different from the earth,
whom the earth does not know, whose body the earth is, who rules the
earth within--he is thy Self, the ruler within, the immortal. He who
dwells in the Self,'&c. (Bri. Up. III, 7,3; 22); 'He who moving within
the earth, and so on--whose body is death, whom death does not know, he
is the Self of all beings, free from sin, divine, the one God, Nårâyana'
(Subâl. Up. VII, 1); 'Having created that he entered into it; having
entered it he became sat and tyat' (Taitt. Up. II, 6). And also in the
section under discussion the passage 'Having entered into them with this
living Self let me evolve names and forms,' shows that it is only
through the entering into them of the living soul whose Self is Brahman,
that all things possess their substantiality and their connexion with
the words denoting them. And as this passage must be understood in
connexion with Taitt. Up. II, 6 (where the 'sat' denotes the individual
soul) it follows that the individual soul also has Brahman for its Self,
owing to the fact of Brahman having entered into it.--From all this it
follows that the entire aggregate of things, intelligent and non-
intelligent, has its Self in Brahman in so far as it constitutes
Brahman's body. And as, thus, the whole world different from Brahman
derives its substantial being only from constituting Brahman's body, any
term denoting the world or something in it conveys a meaning which has
its proper consummation in Brahman only: in other words all terms
whatsoever denote Brahman in so far as distinguished by the different
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