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 doubt whether, 'on account of the reference to the other,' the
individual soul might not possibly be meant, has been discarded on the
ground of 'impossibility.' But, like a dead man on whom am/ri/ta has
been sprinkled, that doubt rises again, drawing new strength from the
subsequent chapter which treats of Prajapati. For there he (Prajapati)
at the outset declares that the Self, which is free from sin and the
like, is that which is to be searched out, that which we must try to
understand (Ch. Up. VIII, 7, 1); after that he points out that the seer
within the eye, i.e. the individual soul, is the Self ('that person that
is seen in the eye is the Self,' VIII, 7, 3); refers again and again to
the same entity (in the clauses 'I shall explain him further to you,'
VIII, 9, 3; VIII, 10, 4); and (in the explanations fulfilling the given
promises) again explains the (nature of the) same individual soul in its
different states ('He who moves about happy in dreams is the Self,'
VIII, 10, 1; 'When a man being asleep, reposing, and at perfect rest
sees no dreams, that is the Self,' VIII, 11, 1). The clause attached to
both these explanations (viz. 'That is the immortal, the fearless; that
is Brahman') shows, at the same time, the individual soul to be free
from sin, and the like. After that Prajapati, having discovered a
shortcoming in the condition of deep sleep (in consequence of the
expostulation of Indra, 'In that way he does not know himself that he is
I, nor does he know these beings,' VIII, 11, 2), enters on a further
explanation ('I shall explain him further to you, and nothing more than
this'), begins by blaming the (soul's) connexion with the body, and
finally declares the individual soul, when it has risen from the body,
to be the highest person. ('Thus does that serene being, arising from
this body, appear in its own form as soon as it has approached the
highest light. That is the highest person.')--From this it appears that
there is a possibility of the qualities of the highest Lord belonging to
the individual soul also, and on that account we maintain that the term,
'the small ether within it,' refers to the individual soul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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