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
remains unchanged--for its essential nature does not become different--
and we also understand what constitutes its 'effected' condition, viz.
its abiding as the Self of non-intelligent and intelligent beings in
their gross condition, distinguished by name and form. For becoming an
effect means entering into another state of being.
Those texts, again, which speak of Brahman as devoid of qualities,
explain themselves on the ground of Brahman being free from all touch of
evil. For the passage, Ch. Up. VIII, 1, 5--which at first negatives all
evil qualities 'free from sin, from old age, from death, from grief,
from hunger and thirst', and after that affirms auspicious qualities
'whose wishes and purposes come true'--enables us to decide that in
other places also the general denial of qualities really refers to evil
qualities only.--Passages which declare knowledge to constitute the
essential nature of Brahman explain themselves on the ground that of
Brahman--which is all-knowing, all-powerful, antagonistic to all evil, a
mass of auspicious qualities--the essential nature can be defined as
knowledge (intelligence) only--which also follows from the 'self-
luminousness' predicated of it. Texts, on the other hand, such as 'He
who is all-knowing' (Mu. Up. I, 1, 9); 'His high power is revealed as
manifold, as essential, acting as force and knowledge' (Svet. Up. VI, 8);
'Whereby should he know the knower' (Bri. Up. II, 4, 14), teach the
highest Self to be a knowing subject. Other texts, again, such as 'The
True, knowledge, infinite is Brahman' (Taitt. Up. II, 1, 1), declare
knowledge to constitute its nature, as it can be denned through
knowledge only, and is self-luminous. And texts such as 'He desired, may
I be many' (Taitt. Up. II, 6); 'It thought, may I be many; it evolved
itself through name and form' (Ch. Up. VI, 2), teach that Brahman,
through its mere wish, appears in manifold modes. Other texts, again,
negative the opposite view, viz. that there is a plurality of things not
having their Self in Brahman. 'From death to death goes he who sees here
any plurality'; 'There is here not any plurality' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 19);
'For where there is duality as it were' (Bri. Up. II, 4, 14). But these
texts in no way negative that plurality of modes--declared in passages
such as 'May I be many, may I grow forth'--which springs from Brahman's
will, and appears in the distinction of names and forms. This is proved
by clauses in those 'negativing' texts themselves, 'Whosoever looks for
anything elsewhere than in the Self', 'from that great Being there has
been breathed forth the Rig-veda,' &c. (Bri. Up. II, 4, 6, 10).--On
this method of interpretation we find that the texts declaring the
essential distinction and separation of non-sentient matter, sentient
beings, and the Lord, and those declaring him to be the cause and the
world to be the effect, and cause and effect to be identical, do not in
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