The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya: Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1
Religion
The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya: Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1
Vedanta
9. On account of (the individual Soul) going to the Self (the Self
cannot be the pradhana).
With reference to the cause denoted by the word 'Sat,' Scripture says,
'When a man sleeps here, then, my dear, he becomes united with the Sat,
he is gone to his own (Self). Therefore they say of him, "he sleeps"
(svapiti), because he is gone to his own (svam apita).' (Ch. Up. VI, 8,
1.) This passage explains the well-known verb 'to sleep,' with reference
to the soul. The word, 'his own,' denotes the Self which had before been
denoted by the word Sat; to the Self he (the individual soul) goes, i.e.
into it it is resolved, according to the acknowledged sense of api-i,
which means 'to be resolved into.' The individual soul (jiva) is called
awake as long as being connected with the various external objects by
means of the modifications of the mind--which thus constitute limiting
adjuncts of the soul--it apprehends those external objects, and
identifies itself with the gross body, which is one of those external
objects[98]. When, modified by the impressions which the external
objects have left, it sees dreams, it is denoted by the term 'mind[99].'
When, on the cessation of the two limiting adjuncts (i.e. the subtle and
the gross bodies), and the consequent absence of the modifications due
to the adjuncts, it is, in the state of deep sleep, merged in the Self
as it were, then it is said to be asleep (resolved into the Self). A
similar etymology of the word 'h/ri/daya' is given by /s/ruti, 'That
Self abides in the heart. And this is the etymological explanation: he
is in the heart (h/ri/di ayam).' (Ch. Up. VIII, 3, 3.) The words
a/s/anaya and udanya are similarly etymologised: 'water is carrying away
what has been eaten by him;' 'fire carries away what has been drunk by
him' (Ch. Up. VI, 8, 3; 5). Thus the passage quoted above explains the
resolution (of the soul) into the Self, denoted by the term 'Sat,' by
means of the etymology of the word 'sleep.' But the intelligent Self can
clearly not resolve itself into the non-intelligent pradhana. If, again,
it were said that the pradhana is denoted by the word 'own,' because
belonging to the Self (as being the Self's own), there would remain the
same absurd statement as to an intelligent entity being resolved into a
non-intelligent one. Moreover another scriptural passage (viz. 'embraced
by the intelligent--praj/n/a--Self he knows nothing that is without,
nothing that is within,' B/ri/. Up. IV, 3, 21) declares that the soul in
the condition of dreamless sleep is resolved into an intelligent entity.
Hence that into which all intelligent souls are resolved is an
intelligent cause of the world, denoted by the word 'Sat,' and not the
pradhana.--A further reason for the pradhana not being the cause is
subjoined.
10. On account of the uniformity of view (of the Vedanta-texts, Brahman
is to be considered the cause).
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