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
'The Person is all this,
sacrifice,' &c. (II, 1, 10).--Now, we see that /s/ruti as well as
sm/ri/ti speaks of the birth of Prajapati, whose body is this threefold
world; compare /Ri/g-veda Sa/m/h. X, 121, 1, 'Hira/n/ya-garbha arose in
the beginning; he was the one born Lord of things existing. He
established the earth and this sky; to what God shall we offer our
oblation?' where the expression 'arose' means 'he was born.' And in
sm/ri/ti we read, 'He is the first embodied one, he is called the
Person; as the primal creator of the beings Brahman was evolved in the
beginning.' This Person which is (not the original Brahman but) an
effect (like other created beings) may be called the internal Self of
all beings (as it is called in II, 1, 4), because in the form of the
Self of breath it abides in the Selfs of all beings.--On this latter
explanation (according to which the passage, 'Fire is his head,' &c.,
does not describe the nature of the highest Lord, and can therefore not
be referred to in the Sutra) the declaration as to the Lord being the
'nature' of all which is contained in the passage, 'The Person is all
this, sacrifice,' &c., must be taken as the reason for establishing the
highest Lord, (i.e. as the passage which, according to the Sutra, proves
that the source of all beings is the highest Lord[152].)
24. Vai/s/vanara (is the highest Lord) on account of the distinction
qualifying the common terms (Vai/s/vanara and Self).
(In Ch. Up. V, 11 ff.) a discussion begins with the words, 'What is our
Self, what is Brahman?' and is carried on in the passage, 'You know at
present that Vai/s/vanara Self, tell us that;' after that it is declared
with reference to Heaven, sun, air, ether, water, and earth, that they
are connected with the qualities of having good light, &c., and, in
order to disparage devout meditation on them singly, that they stand to
the Vai/s/vanara in the relation of being his head, &c., merely; and
then finally (V, 18) it is said, 'But he who meditates on the
Vai/s/vanara Self as measured by a span, as abhivimana[153], he eats
food in all worlds, in all beings, in all Selfs. Of that Vai/s/vanara
Self the head is Sutejas (having good light), the eye Vi/s/varupa
(multiform), the breath P/ri/thagvartman (moving in various courses),
the trunk Bahula (full), the bladder Rayi (wealth), the feet the earth,
the chest the altar, the hairs the grass on the altar, the heart the
Garhapatya fire, the mind the Anvaharya fire, the mouth the Ahavaniya
fire.'--Here the doubt arises whether by the term 'Vai/s/vanara' we have
to understand the gastric fire, or the elemental fire, or the divinity
presiding over the latter, or the embodied soul, or the highest
Lord.--But what, it may be asked, gives rise to this doubt?--The
circumstance, we reply, of 'Vai/s/vanara' being employed as a common
term for the gastric fire, the elemental fire, and the divinity of the
latter, while 'Self' is a term applying to the embodied soul as well as
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account