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
But, an objection is raised, we indeed observe that words denoting
species or qualities stand in co-ordination to words denoting substances,
'the ox is short-horned,' 'the sugar is white'; but where substances
appear as the modes of other substances we find that formative affixes
are used, 'the man is dandin, kundalin' (bearing a stick; wearing
earrings).--This is not so, we reply. There is nothing to single out
either species, or quality, or substance, as what determines co-
ordination: co-ordination disregards such limitations. Whenever a _thing_
(whether species, or quality, or substance) has existence as a _mode_
only--owing to its proof, existence and conception being inseparably
connected with something else--the words denoting it, as they designate
a substance characterised by the attribute denoted by them,
appropriately enter into co-ordination with other words denoting the
same substance as characterised by other attributes. Where, on the other
hand, a substance which is established in separation from other things
and rests on itself, is assumed to stand occasionally in the relation of
mode to another substance, this is appropriately expressed by the use of
derived forms such as 'dandin, kundalin.' Hence such words as 'I,' 'thou,'
&c., which are different forms of appellation of the individual soul,
at bottom denote the highest Self only; for the individual souls
together with non-sentient matter are the body--and hence modes--of the
highest Self. This entire view is condensed in the co-ordination 'Thou
art that.' The individual soul being thus connected with the highest
Self as its body, its attributes do not touch the highest Self, not any
more than infancy, youth, and other attributes of the material body
touch the individual soul. Hence, in the co-ordination 'Thou art that,'
the word 'that' denotes the highest Brahman which is the cause of the
world, whose purposes come true, which comprises within itself all
blessed qualities, which is free from all shadow of evil; while the word
'thou' denotes the same highest Self in so far as having for its body
the individual souls together with their bodies. The terms co-ordinated
may thus be taken in their primary senses; there is no contradiction
either with the subject-matter of the section, or with scripture in
general; and not a shadow of imperfection such as Nescience, and so on,
attaches to Brahman, the blameless, the absolutely blessed. The co-
ordination with the individual soul thus proves only the difference of
Brahman from the soul, which is a mere mode of Brahman; and hence we
hold that different from the Self consisting of knowledge, i.e. the
individual soul, is the Self consisting of bliss, i.e. the highest Self.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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