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
Here the following objection is raised.--Vai/s/vanara cannot be the
highest Lord, on account of the term, &c., and on account of the abiding
within. The term, viz. the term Vai/s/vanara, cannot be applied to the
highest Lord, because the settled use of language assigns to it a
different sense. Thus, also, with regard to the term Agni (fire) in the
passage (/S/at. Bra. X, 6, 1, 11), 'He is the Agni Vai/s/vanara.' The
word '&c.' (in the Sutra) hints at the fiction concerning the three
sacred fires, the garhapatya being represented as the heart, and so on,
of the Vai/s/vanara Self (Ch. Up. V, 18, 2[156]).--Moreover, the
passage, 'Therefore the first food which a man may take is in the place
of homa' (Ch. Up. V, 19, 1), contains a glorification of (Vai/s/vanara)
being the abode of the oblation to Pra/n/a[157]. For these reasons we
have to understand by Vai/s/vanara the gastric fire.--Moreover,
Scripture speaks of the Vai/s/vanara as abiding within. 'He knows him
abiding within man;' which again applies to the gastric fire only.--With
reference to the averment that on account of the specifications
contained in the passage, 'His head is Sutejas,' &c., Vai/s/vanara is to
be explained as the highest Self, we (the purvapakshin) ask: How do you
reach the decision that those specifications, although agreeing with
both interpretations, must be assumed to refer to the highest Lord only,
and not to the gastric fire?--Or else we may assume that the passage
speaks of the elemental fire which abides within and without; for that
that fire is also connected with the heavenly world, and so on, we
understand from the mantra, 'He who with his light has extended himself
over earth and heaven, the two halves of the world, and the atmosphere'
(/Ri/g-veda Sa/m/h. X, 88, 3).--Or else the attribute of having the
heavenly world, and so on, for its members may, on account of its power,
be attributed to that divinity which has the elemental fire for its
body.--Therefore Vai/s/vanara is not the highest Lord.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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