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 Vâjasaneyins, of the Kânwa as well as the Mâdhyandina branch, have
the following text: 'He who dwelling in the earth is within the earth,
whom the earth does not know, whose body the earth is, who rules the
earth within, he is thy Self, the ruler within, the Immortal.' The text
thereupon extends this teaching as to a being that dwells in things, is
within them, is not known by them, has them for its body and rules them;
in the first place to all divine beings, viz. water, fire, sky, air, sun,
the regions, moon, stars, ether, darkness, light; and next to all
material beings, viz. breath, speech, eye, ear, mind, skin, knowledge,
seed--closing each section with the words, 'He is thy Self, the ruler
within, the Immortal.' The Mâdhyandinas, however, have three additional
sections, viz. 'He who dwells in all worlds,' &c.; 'he who dwells in all
Vedas,' &c.; 'He who dwells in all sacrifices'; and, moreover, in place
of 'He who dwells in knowledge' (vijñàna) they read 'He who dwells in
the Self.'--A doubt here arises whether the inward Ruler of these texts
be the individual Self or the highest Self.
The individual Self, the Pûrvapakshin maintains. For in the
supplementary passage (which follows upon the text considered so far)
the internal Ruler is called the 'seer' and 'hearer,' i.e. his knowledge
is said to depend on the sense-organs, and this implies the view that
the 'seer' only (i.e. the individual soul only) is the inward Ruler; and
further the clause 'There is no other seer but he' negatives any other
seer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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