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
under the same names. The objects (in the second passage) are the
objects which are (in the former passage) designated as the roads of the
senses; that the objects are beyond (higher than) the senses is known
from the scriptural passage representing the senses as grahas, i.e.
graspers, and the objects as atigrahas, i.e. superior to the grahas
(B/ri/ Up. III, 2). The mind (manas) again is superior to the objects,
because the relation of the senses and their objects is based on the
mind. The intellect (buddhi) is higher than the mind, since the objects
of enjoyment are conveyed to the soul by means of the intellect. Higher
than the intellect is the great Self which was represented as the lord
of the chariot in the passage, 'Know the Self to be the lord of the
chariot.' That the same Self is referred to in both passages is manifest
from the repeated use of the word 'Self;' that the Self is superior to
intelligence is owing to the circumstance that the enjoyer is naturally
superior to the instrument of enjoyment. The Self is appropriately
called great as it is the master.--Or else the phrase 'the great Self'
may here denote the intellect of the first-born Hira/n/yagarbha which is
the basis of all intellects; in accordance with the following
Sm/ri/ti-passage it is called mind, the great one; reflection, Brahman;
the stronghold, intellect; enunciation, the Lord; highest knowledge,
consciousness; thought, remembrance[229], and likewise with the
following scriptural passage, 'He (Hira/n/ya-garbha) who first creates
Brahman and delivers the Vedas to him' (/S/vet. Up. VI, 18). The
intellect, which in the former passage had been referred to under its
common name buddhi, is here mentioned separately, since it may be
represented as superior to our human intellects. On this latter
explanation of the term 'the great Self,' we must assume that the
personal Self which in the simile had been compared to the charioteer
is, in the latter passage, included in the highest person (mentioned
last); to which there is no objection, since in reality the personal
Self and the highest Self are identical.--Thus there remains now the
body only which had before been compared to a chariot. We therefore
conclude that the text after having enumerated the senses and all the
other things mentioned before, in order to point out the highest place,
points out by means of the one remaining word, viz. avyakta, the only
thing remaining out of those which had been mentioned before, viz. the
body. The entire passage aims at conveying the knowledge of the unity of
the inward Self and Brahman, by describing the soul's passing through
sa/m/sara and release under the form of a simile in which the body, &c.
of the soul--which is affected by Nescience and therefore joined to a
body, senses, mind, intellect, objects, sensations, &c.--are compared to
a chariot, and so on.--In accordance with this the subsequent verse
states the difficulty of knowing the highest place of Vish/n/u ('the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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