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
Other scriptural texts give an account of the way--the first station of
which is light--that leads up to the highest Person, without any
subsequent return, the soul of him who has read the Upanishads, and has
thus acquired a knowledge of the true nature of the highest Self. Now
this same way is described by the teacher to Upakosala in connexion with
the instruction as to the Person in the eye, 'They go to light, from
light to day,' &c. This also proves that the Person within the eye is
the highest Self.
18. Not any other, on account of non-permanency of abode, and of
impossibility.
As the reflected Self and the other Selfs mentioned by the Pûrvapakshin
do not necessarily abide within the eye, and as conditionless
immortality and the other qualities (ascribed in the text to the Person
within the eye) cannot possibly belong to them, the Person within the
eye cannot be any Self other than the highest Self. Of the reflected
Self it cannot be said that it permanently abides within the eye, for
its presence there depends on the nearness to the eye of another person.
The embodied Self again has its seat within the heart, which is the root
of all sense-organs, so as to assist thereby the activities of the
different senses; it cannot therefore abide within the eye. And with
regard to the divinity the text says that 'he rests with his rays in him,
i.e. the eye': this implies that the divine being may preside over the
organ of sight although itself abiding in another place; it does not
therefore abide in the eye. Moreover, non-conditioned immortality and
similar qualities cannot belong to any of these three Selfs. The Person
seen within the eye therefore is the highest Self.
We have, under Sû. I, 2, 14, assumed as proved that the abiding within
the eye and ruling the eye, which is referred to in Bri. Up. III, 7, 18
('He who dwells in the eye,' &c.), can belong to the highest Self only,
and have on that basis proved that the Self within the eye is the
highest Self.--Here terminates the adhikarana of that 'within.'--The
next Sûtra now proceeds to prove that assumption.
19. The internal Ruler (referred to) in the clauses with respect to the
gods, with respect to the worlds, &c. (is the highest Self), because the
attributes of that are designated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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