Sarvadarshanasangraha 16.16

16.16

And that Vedānta treatise consists of four chapters. Śaṅkarācārya established that the subject matter of the Vedānta treatise composed by the venerable Bādarāyaṇa is the identity of the inner self and Brahman. There, in the first chapter on harmony, all the Vedānta passages culminate primarily in Brahman. In the second chapter on non-contradiction, the contradiction with the reasoning of the Sāṅkhyas and others is refuted. In the third chapter on spiritual means, the means to the knowledge of Brahman are set forth. In the fourth chapter on the fruit, the fruit of knowledge [is set forth]. There, in each chapter, there are four quarters. There, in the first quarter of the first chapter, the group of texts bearing explicit marks of Brahman is examined. In the second, those bearing indistinct marks of Brahman concerning objects of meditation. In the third, such [texts] concerning the object of knowledge. In the fourth, the group of ambiguous words such as ‘unmanifest’ and ‘unborn’. In the first [quarter] of the second [chapter] on non-contradiction, the contradiction with the traditional texts of Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Kaṇāda, and others is removed. In the second, the flawed nature of the doctrines of Sāṅkhya and others [is shown]. In the third, the mutual contradiction among the Vedic texts concerning the five gross elements and the individual self is removed. In the fourth, the contradiction among the Vedic texts concerning the subtle body is removed.