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 Hindu commentators here and there attempt to point out the reason
why the discussion of a certain Vedic passage is immediately followed by
the consideration of a certain other one. Their explanations--which have
occasionally been referred to in the notes to the translation--rest on
the assumption that the Sutrakara in arranging the texts to be commented
upon was guided by technicalities of the Mima/m/sa-system, especially by
a regard for the various so-called means of proof which the Mima/m/saka
employs for the purpose of determining the proper meaning and position
of scriptural passages. But that this was the guiding principle, is
rendered altogether improbable by a simple tabular statement of the
Vedic passages referred to in the first adhyaya, such as given by
Deussen on page 130; for from the latter it appears that the order in
which the Sutras exhibit the scriptural passages follows the order in
which those passages themselves occur in the Upanishads, and it would
certainly be a most strange coincidence if that order enabled us at the
same time to exemplify the various prama/n/as of the Mima/m/sa in their
due systematic succession.
As Deussen's statement shows, most of the passages discussed are taken
from the Chandogya Upanishad, so many indeed that the whole first
adhyaya may be said to consist of a discussion of all those Chandogya
passages of which it is doubtful whether they are concerned with Brahman
or not, passages from the other Upanishads being brought in wherever an
opportunity offers. Considering the prominent position assigned to the
Upanishad mentioned, I think it likely that the Sutrakara meant to begin
the series of doubtful texts with the first doubtful passage from the
Chandogya, and that hence the sixth adhikara/n/a which treats of the
anandamaya mentioned in the Taittiriya Upanishad has, in agreement with
Ramanuja's views, to be separated from the subsequent adhikara/n/as, and
to be combined with the preceding ones whose task it is to lay down the
fundamental propositions regarding Brahman's nature.--The remaining
adhikara/n/as of the first pada follow the order of passages in the
Chandogya Upanishad, and therefore call for no remark; with the
exception of the last adhikara/n/a, which refers to a Kaushitaki
passage, for whose being introduced in this place I am not able to
account.--The first adhikara/n/a of the second pada returns to the
Chandogya Upanishad. The second one treats of a passage in the Ka/th/a
Upanishad where a being is referred to which eats everything. The reason
why that passage is introduced in this place seems to be correctly
assigned in the /S/ri-bhashya, which remarks that, as in the preceding
Sutra it had been argued that the highest Self is not an enjoyer, a
doubt arises whether by that being which eats everything the highest
Self can be meant[10]--The third adhikara/n/a again, whose topic is the
'two entered into the cave' (Ka/th/a Up. I, 3, 1), appears, as Ramanuja
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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