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
And their
lordly power also is based on the highest Lord and does not naturally
belong to them; as the mantra declares, 'From terror of it (Brahman) the
wind blows, from terror the sun rises; from terror of it Agni and Indra,
yea, Death runs as the fifth.'--Hence the person in the eye must be
viewed as the highest Lord only. In the case of this explanation being
adopted the mention (of the person in the eye) as something well known
and established, which is contained in the words 'is seen' (in the
phrase 'the person that is seen in the eye'), has to be taken as
referring to (the mental perception founded on) the /s/astra which
belongs to those who know; and the glorification (of devout meditation)
has to be understood as its purpose.
18. The internal ruler over the devas and so on (is Brahman), because
the attributes of that (Brahman) are designated.
In B/ri/. Up. III, 7, 1 ff. we read, 'He who within rules this world and
the other world and all beings,' and later on, 'He who dwells in the
earth and within the earth, whom the earth does not know, whose body the
earth is, who rules the earth within, he is thy Self, the ruler within,
the immortal,' &c. The entire chapter (to sum up its contents) speaks of
a being, called the antaryamin (the internal ruler), who, dwelling
within, rules with reference to the gods, the world, the Veda, the
sacrifice, the beings, the Self.--Here now, owing to the unusualness of
the term (antaryamin), there arises a doubt whether it denotes the Self
of some deity which presides over the gods and so on, or some Yogin who
has acquired extraordinary powers, such as, for instance, the capability
of making his body subtle, or the highest Self, or some other being.
What alternative then does recommend itself?
As the term is an unknown one, the purvapakshin says, we must assume
that the being denoted by it is also an unknown one, different from all
those mentioned above.--Or else it may be said that, on the one hand, we
have no right to assume something of an altogether indefinite character,
and that, on the other hand, the term antaryamin--which is derived from
antaryamana (ruling within)--cannot be called altogether unknown, that
therefore antaryamin may be assumed to denote some god presiding over
the earth, and so on. Similarly, we read (B/ri/. Up. III, 9, 16), 'He
whose dwelling is the earth, whose sight is fire, whose mind is light,'
&c. A god of that kind is capable of ruling the earth, and so on,
dwelling within them, because he is endowed with the organs of action;
rulership is therefore rightly ascribed to him.--Or else the rulership
spoken of may belong to some Yogin whom his extraordinary powers enable
to enter within all things.--The highest Self, on the other hand, cannot
be meant, as it does not possess the organs of action (which are
required for ruling).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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