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
works of the different classes of beings, and thus is born in many ways.
Smriti says the same: 'Though being unborn, of non-perishable nature,
the Lord of all beings, yet presiding over my Prakriti I am born by my
own mysterious power' (Bha. Gî. IV, 6). Of the mind also and the other
organs of the individual soul the highest Self is strictly the abode;
for it is the abode of everything.--The next Sûtra supplies a further
reason.
2. And on account of its being declared that to which the released have
to resort.
The Person who is the abode of heaven, earth, and so on, is also
declared by the text to be what is to be reached by those who are
released from the bondage of Samsâra existence. 'When the seer sees the
brilliant maker and Lord as the Person who has his source in Brahman,
then possessing true knowledge he shakes off good and evil, and, free
from passion, reaches the highest oneness' (Mu. Up. III, 1, 3). 'As the
flowing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their name and form, thus a
wise man freed from name and form goes to the divine Person who is
higher than the high' (III, 2, 8). For it is only those freed from the
bondage of Samsâra who shake off good and evil, are free from passion,
and freed from name and form.
For the Samsâra state consists in the possession of name and form, which
is due to connexion with non-sentient matter, such connexion springing
from good and evil works. The Person therefore who is the abode of
heaven, earth, &c., and whom the text declares to be the aim to be
reached by those who, having freed themselves from good and evil, and
hence from all contact with matter, attain supreme oneness with the
highest Brahman, can be none other than this highest Brahman itself.
This conclusion, based on terms exclusively applicable to the highest
Brahman, is now confirmed by reference to the absence of terms specially
applicable to the individual soul.
3. Not that which is inferred, on account of the absence of terms
denoting it, and (so also not) the bearer of the Prânas (i. e. the
individual soul).
As the section under discussion does not treat of the Pradhâna, there
being no terms referring to that, so it is with regard to the individual
soul also. In the text of the Sûtra we have to read either anumânam, i.
e. 'inference,' in the sense of 'object of inference,' or else ânumânam,
'object of inference'; what is meant being in both cases the Pradhana
inferred to exist by the Sânkhyas.
4. On account of the declaration of difference.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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