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
The instruction which, in the passages quoted, Indra gives as to the
object of meditation, i.e. Brahman constituting his Self, is not based
on such an insight into his own nature as is established by other means
of proof, but on an intuition of his own Self, mediated by Scripture.
'Having entered into them with this living Self let me evolve names and
forms' (Ch. Up. VI, 3, 2); 'In it all that exists has its Self (Ch. Up.
VI, 8, 7); Entered within, the ruler of creatures, the Self of all'
(Taitt. Ar. III, 21); 'He who dwelling in the Self is different from the
Self,' &c. (Bri. Up. III, 7, 22)--from these and similar texts Indra has
learned that the highest Self has the indiviual souls for its body, and
that hence words such as 'I' and 'thou,' which denote individual beings,
extend in their connotation up to the highest Self; when, therefore, he
says, 'Know me only', and 'Meditate on me', he really means to teach
that the highest Self, of which his own individual person is the body,
is the proper object of meditation. 'As in the case of Vâmadeva.' As the
Rishi Vâmadeva perceiving that Brahman is the inner Self of all, that
all things constitute its body, and that the meaning of words denoting a
body extends up to the principle embodied, denotes with the word 'I' the
highest Brahman to which he himself stands in the relation of a body,
and then predicates of this 'I' Manu Sûrya and other beings--'Seeing
this the Rishi. Vâmadeva understood, I am Manu, I am Sûrya' (Bri. Up. I,
4, 10). Similarly Prahlâda says, 'As the Infinite one abides within all,
he constitutes my "I" also; all is from me, I am all, within me is all.'
(Vi. Pu. I, 19, 85.) The next Sûtra states, in reply to an objection,
the reason why, in the section under discussion, terms denoting the
individual soul, and others denoting non-sentient things are applied to
Brahman.
32. If it be said (that Brahman is not meant) on account of
characteristic marks of the individual soul and the chief vital air; we
say no, on account of the threefoldness of meditation; on account of
(such threefold meditation) being met (in other texts also); and on
account of (such threefold meditation) being appropriate here (also).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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