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 wherefrom is all this to be known?--From the instruction given by
Prajapati who, after having referred to the jiva ('the person that is
seen in the eye,' &c.), continues 'This is the immortal, the fearless,
this is Brahman.' If the well-known seer within the eye were different
from Brahman which is characterised as the immortal and fearless, it
would not be co-ordinated (as it actually is) with the immortal, the
fearless, and Brahman. The reflected Self, on the other hand, is not
spoken of as he who is characterised by the eye (the seer within the
eye), for that would render Prajapati obnoxious to the reproach of
saying deceitful things.--So also, in the second section, the passage,
'He who moves about happy in dreams,' &c. does not refer to a being
different from the seeing person within the eye spoken of in the first
chapter, (but treats of the same topic) as appears from the introductory
clause, 'I shall explain him further to you.' Moreover[187], a person
who is conscious of having seen an elephant in a dream and of no longer
seeing it when awake discards in the waking state the object which he
had seen (in his sleep), but recognises himself when awake to be the
same person who saw something in the dream.--Thus in the third section
also Prajapati does indeed declare the absence of all particular
cognition in the state of deep sleep, but does not contest the identity
of the cognising Self ('In that way he does not know himself that he is
I, nor all these beings'). The following clause also, 'He is gone to
utter annihilation,' is meant to intimate only the annihilation of all
specific cognition, not the annihilation of the cogniser. For there is
no destruction of the knowing of the knower as--according to another
scriptural passage (B/ri/. Up. IV, 3, 30)--that is imperishable.--Thus,
again, in the fourth section the introductory phrase of Prajapati is, 'I
shall explain him further to you and nothing different from this;' he
thereupon refutes the connexion (of the Self) with the body and other
limiting conditions ('Maghavat, this body is mortal,' &c.), shows the
individual soul--which is there called 'the serene being'--in the state
when it has reached the nature of Brahman ('It appears in its own
form'), and thus proves the soul to be non-different from the highest
Brahman whose characteristics are immortality and fearlessness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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