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
Adhik. XXVII (42) decides that those meditations which are connected
with certain matters forming constituent parts of sacrificial actions,
are not to be considered as permanently requisite parts of the
latter.--Adhik. XXVIII (43) teaches that, in a B/ri/. Up. passage and a
similar Ch. Up. passage, Vayu and Pra/n/a are not to be identified, but
to be held apart.--Adhik. XXIX (44-52) decides that the firealtars made
of mind, &c., which are mentioned in the Agnirahasya, do not constitute
parts of the sacrificial action (so that the mental, &c. construction of
the altar could optionally be substituted for the actual one), but
merely subjects of meditations.
Adhik. XXX (53, 54) treats, according to /S/a@nkara, in the way of
digression, of the question whether to the Self an existence independent
of the body can be assigned, or not (as the Materialists
maintain).--According to the /S/ri-bhashya the adhikara/n/a does not
refer to this wide question, but is concerned with a point more
immediately connected with the meditations on Brahman, viz. the question
as to the form under which, in those meditations, the Self of the
meditating devotee has to be viewed. The two Sutras then have to be
translated as follows: 'Some (maintain that the soul of the devotee has,
in meditations, to be viewed as possessing those attributes only which
belong to it in its embodied state, such as j/n/at/ri/tva and the like),
because the Self is (at the time of meditation) in the body.'--The next
Sutra rejects this view, 'This is not so, but the separatedness (i.e.
the pure isolated state in which the Self is at the time of final
release when it is freed from all evil, &c.) (is to be transferred to
the meditating Self), because that will be[18] the state (of the Self in
the condition of final release).'
Adhik. XXXI (55, 56) decides that meditations connected with constituent
elements of the sacrifice, such as the udgitha, are, in spite of
difference of svara in the udgitha, &c., valid, not only for that
/s/akha in which the meditation actually is met with, but for all
/s/akhas.--Adhik. XXXII (57) decides that the Vai/s/vanara Agni of Ch.
Up. V, 11 ff. is to be meditated upon as a whole, not in his single
parts.--Adhik. XXXIII (58) teaches that those meditations which refer to
one subject, but as distinguished by different qualities, have to be
held apart as different meditations. Thus the daharavidya,
/S/a/nd/ilyavidya, &c. remain separate.
Adhik. XXXIV (59) teaches that those meditations on Brahman for which
the texts assign one and the same fruit are optional, there being no
reason for their being cumulated.--Adhik. XXXV (60) decides that those
meditations, on the other hand, which refer to special wishes may be
cumulated or optionally employed according to choice.--Adhik. XXXVI
(61-66) extends this conclusion to the meditations connected with
constituent elements of action, such as the udgitha.
PADA IV.
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