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
Such attributes, of course, as the possession
of mutilated horns (mentioned above), which are contradictorily opposed
to each other, necessarily lead to the assumption of several individual
cows to which they severally belong; but the origination, &c., of the
world are processes separated from each other by difference of time only,
and may therefore, without contradiction, be connected with one Brahman
in succession.--The text 'from whence these beings', &c., teaches us
that Brahman is the cause of the origination, &c., of the world, and of
this Brahman thus known the other text 'The True, knowledge, the
Infinite is Brahman', tells us that its essential nature marks it off
from everything else. The term 'True' expresses Brahman in so far as
possessing absolutely non-conditioned existence, and thus distinguishes
it from non-intelligent matter, the abode of change, and the souls
implicated in matter; for as both of these enter into different states
of existence called by different names, they do not enjoy unconditioned
being. The term 'knowledge' expresses the characteristic of permanently
non-contracted intelligence, and thus distinguishes Brahman from the
released souls whose intelligence is sometimes in a contracted state.
And the term 'Infinite' denotes that, whose nature is free from all
limitation of place, time, and particular substantial nature; and as
Brahman's essential nature possesses attributes, infinity belongs both
to the essential nature and to the attributes. The qualification of
Infinity excludes all those individual souls whose essential nature and
attributes are not unsurpassable, and who are distinct from the two
classes of beings already excluded by the two former terms (viz. 'true
being' and 'knowledge').--The entire text therefore defines Brahman--
which is already known to be the cause of the origination, &c., of the
world--as that which is in kind different from all other things; and it
is therefore not true that the two texts under discussion have no force
because mutually depending on each other. And from this it follows that
a knowledge of Brahman may be gained on the ground of its characteristic
marks--such as its being the cause of the origination, &c., of the world,
free from all evil, omniscient, all-powerful, and so on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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