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
It has been shown that the being endowed with supreme brilliance, called
'Light,' which the text mentions as something well known, is the highest
Person. The Sûtrakâra will now show that the being designated as Indra
and Prâna, which the text enjoins as an object of meditation, for the
reason that it is the means for attaining immortality--a power which is
inseparable from causal power--, is likewise the highest Person.
29. Prâna is Brahman, on account of connexion.
We read in the Pratardana-vidyâ in the Kaushîtaki-brâhmana that
'Pratardana, the son of Divodâsa, came, by fighting and strength, to the
beloved abode of Indra.' Being asked by Indra to choose a boon he
requests the God to bestow on him that boon which he himself considers
most beneficial to man; whereupon Indra says, 'I am prâna (breath), the
intelligent Self, meditate on me as Life, as Immortality.' Here the
doubt arises whether the being called Prâna and Indra, and designating
itself as the object of a meditation most beneficial to man, is an
individual soul, or the highest Self.--An individual soul, the
Pûrvapakshin maintains. For, he says, the word 'Indra' is known to
denote an individual God, and the word 'Prâna,' which stands in
grammatical co-ordination with Indra, also applies to individual souls.
This individual being, called Indra, instructs Pratardana that
meditation on himself is most beneficial to man. But what is most
beneficial to man is only the means to attain immortality, and such a
means is found in meditation on the causal principle of the world, as we
know from the text, 'For him there is delay only so long as he is not
delivered; then he will be perfect' (Ch. Up. VI, 14, 2). We hence
conclude that Indra, who is known as an individual soul, is the causal
principle, Brahman.
This view is rejected by the Sûtra. The being called Indra and Prâna is
not a mere individual soul, but the highest Brahman, which is other than
all individual souls. For on this supposition only it is appropriate
that the being introduced as Indra and Prâna should, in the way of
grammatical co-ordination, be connected with such terms as 'blessed,'
'non-ageing,' 'immortal.' ('That Prâna indeed is the intelligent Self,
blessed, non-ageing, immortal,' Kau. Up. III, 9.)
30. If it be said that (Brahman is) not (denoted) on account of the
speaker denoting himself; (we say, not so), because the multitude of
connexions with the inner Self (is possible only) in that (speaker if
viewed as Brahman).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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