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
We read in the Chândogya, 'Man is made of thought; according to what his
thought is in this world, so will he be when he has departed this life.
Let him form this thought: he who consists of mind, whose body is breath,
whose form is light,' &c. (III, 14). We here understand that of the
meditation enjoined by the clause 'let him form this thought' the object
is the being said to consist of mind, to have breath for its body, &c. A
doubt, however, arises whether the being possessing these attributes be
the individual soul or the highest Self.--The Pûrvapakshin maintains the
former alternative. For, he says, mind and breath are instruments of the
individual soul; while the text 'without breath, without mind,'
distinctly denies them to the highest Self. Nor can the Brahman
mentioned in a previous clause of the same section ('All this indeed is
Brahman') be connected as an object with the meditation enjoined in the
passage under discussion; for Brahman is there referred to in order to
suggest the idea of its being the Self of all--which idea constitutes a
means for bringing about that calmness of mind which is helpful towards
the act of meditation enjoined in the clause 'Let a man meditate with
calm mind,' &c. Nor, again, can it be said that as the meditation
conveyed by the clause 'let him form this thought' demands an object,
Brahman, although mentioned in another passage, only admits of being
connected with the passage under discussion; for the demand for an
object is fully satisfied by the being made of mind, &c., which is
mentioned in that very passage itself; in order to supply the object we
have merely to change the case-terminations of the words 'manomayah
prânasarîrah,' &c. It having thus been determined that the being made of
mind is the individual soul, we further conclude that the Brahman
mentioned in the concluding passage of the section ('That is Brahman')
is also the individual soul, there called Brahman in order to glorify it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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