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 now turn to the numerous texts which, according to the view of our
opponent, negative the existence of plurality.--'Where there is duality
as it were' (Bri. Up. IV, 5, 15); 'There is not any plurality here; from
death to death goes he who sees here any plurality' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 19);
'But when for him the Self alone has become all, by what means, and whom,
should he see?' (Bri. Up. IV, 5, 15) &c.--But what all these texts deny
is only plurality in so far as contradicting that unity of the world
which depends on its being in its entirety an effect of Brahman, and
having Brahman for its inward ruling principle and its true Self. They
do not, on the other hand, deny that plurality on Brahman's part which
depends on its intention to become manifold--a plurality proved by the
text 'May I be many, may I grow forth' (Ch. Up. VI, 2, 3). Nor can our
opponent urge against this that, owing to the denial of plurality
contained in other passages this last text refers to something not real;
for it is an altogether laughable assertion that Scripture should at
first teach the doctrine, difficult to comprehend, that plurality as
suggested by Perception and the other means of Knowledge belongs to
Brahman also, and should afterwards negative this very doctrine!
Nor is it true that the text 'If he makes but the smallest "antaram" (i.
e. difference, interval, break) in it there is fear for him' (Taitt. Up.
II, 7) implies that he who sees plurality within Brahman encounters fear.
For the other text 'All this is Brahman; let a man meditate with calm
mind on all this as beginning, ending and breathing in it, i.e. Brahman'
(Ch. Up. III, 14, 1) teaches directly that reflection on the plurality
of Brahman is the cause of peace of mind. For this passage declares that
peace of mind is produced by a reflection on the entire world as
springing from, abiding within, and being absorbed into Brahman, and
thus having Brahman for its Self; and as thus the view of Brahman
constituting the Self of the world with all its manifold distinctions of
gods, men, animals, inanimate matter and so on, is said to be the cause
of peace of mind, and, consequently, of absence of fear, that same view
surely cannot be a _cause_ of fear!--But how then is it that the Taitt.
text declares that 'there is fear for him'?--That text, we reply,
declares in its earlier part that rest in Brahman is the cause of
fearlessness ('when he finds freedom from fear, rest, in that which is
invisible, incorporeal, undefined, unsupported; then he has obtained
fearlessness'); its latter part therefore means that fear takes place
when there is an interval, a break, in this resting in Brahman. As the
great Rishi says 'When Vâsudeva is not meditated on for an hour or even
a moment only; that is loss, that is great calamity, that is error, that
is change.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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