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
Of the same tendency is the passage, 'Pra/n/a, the intelligent Self,
alone having laid hold of this body makes it rise up;' and the passage
(which occurs in the passus, 'Let no man try to find out what speech
is,' &c.), 'For as in a car the circumference of the wheel is set on the
spokes and the spokes on the nave, thus are these objects set on the
subjects (the senses) and the subjects on the pra/n/a. And that pra/n/a
indeed is the Self of pra/n/a, blessed, imperishable, immortal.' So also
the following passage which, referring to this interior Self, forming as
it were the centre of the peripherical interaction of the objects and
senses, sums up as follows, 'He is my Self, thus let it be known;' a
summing up which is appropriate only if pra/n/a is meant to denote not
some outward existence, but the interior Self. And another scriptural
passage declares 'this Self is Brahman, omniscient'[130] (B/ri/. Up. II,
5, 19). We therefore arrive at the conclusion that, on account of the
multitude of references to the interior Self, the chapter contains
information regarding Brahman, not regarding the Self of some
deity.--How then can the circumstance of the speaker (Indra) referring
to himself be explained?
30. The declaration (made by Indra about himself, viz. that he is one
with Brahman) (is possible) through intuition vouched for by Scripture,
as in the case of Vamadeva.
The individual divine Self called Indra perceiving by means of
/ri/shi-like intuition[131]--the existence of which is vouched for by
Scripture--its own Self to be identical with the supreme Self, instructs
Pratardana (about the highest Self) by means of the words 'Know me
only.'
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