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
They (i.e. the Vâjasaneyins) speak of him, viz. Vaisvânara who has
heaven for his head, &c.--i.e. the highest Self--as within that, i.e.
the body of the devotee, so as to form the abode of the oblation to
Prâna; viz. in the text,'Of that Vaisvânara Self the head is Sutejas,'
and so on. The context is as follows. The clause 'He who meditates on
the Vaisvânara Self as prâdesamâtra,' &c. enjoins meditation on the
highest Self having the three worlds for its body, i.e. on Vaisvânara.
The following clause 'he eats food in all worlds' teaches that the
attaining of Brahman is the reward of such meditation. And then the text
proceeds to teach the Agnihotra offered to Prâna, which is something
subsidiary to the meditation taught. The text here establishes an
identity between the members--fire, sun, &c.--of the Vaisvânara enjoined
as object of meditation (which members are called Sutejas, Visvarûpa, &c.
), and parts--viz. head, eye, breath, trunk, bladder, feet--of the
worshipper's body. 'The head is Sutejas'--that means: the head of the
devotee is (identical with) heaven, which is the head of the highest
Self; and so on up to 'the feet,' i.e. the feet of the devotee are
identical with the earth, which constitutes the feet of the highest Self,
The devotee having thus reflected on the highest Self, which has the
three worlds for its body, as present within his own body, thereupon is
told to view his own chest, hair, heart, mind and mouth as identical
with the altar, grass and the other things which are required for the
Agnihotra; further to identify the oblation to Prâna with the Agnihotra,
and by means of this Prâna-agnihotra to win the favour of Vaisvânara, i.
e. the highest Self. The final--conclusion then remains that Vaisvânara
is none other than the highest Self, the supreme Person.--Here
terminates the adhikarana of 'Vaisvânara.'
THIRD PÂDA.
1. The abode of heaven, earth, &c. (is the highest Self), on account of
terms which are its own.
The followers of the Atharva-veda have the following text, 'He in whom
the heaven, the earth and the sky are woven, the mind also, with all the
vital airs, know him alone as the Self, and leave off other words; he is
the bank (setu) of the Immortal' (Mu. Up. II, 2, 5). The doubt here
arises whether the being spoken of as the abode of heaven, earth, and so
on, is the individual soul or the highest Self.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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