A History of Indian Philosophy v4.c38.s2.1

v4.c38.s2.1

On the topic (*adhikaraṇa*) contained in *sūtras* 5–11 Śaṅkara suggests the following argument against the supposed Sāṃkhya claim that the ultimate causality is attributed in the Upaniṣads to *prakṛti* and not to Brahman: he says that *prakṛti* is foreign to the Upaniṣads; for they speak of perceiving (*īkṣater nāśabdam*)², and perceiving can only be true of an intelligent agent. Brahman being all-revealing eternal intelligence, omniscience and perceiving (*īkṣati*) can very well be attributed to it. The word “perceiving” (*īkṣati*) of the text cannot be otherwise explained; for its reference to an intelligent agent is further emphasized by its being called *ātman* (self), a word whose application to conscious agents is well known³; and we are certain that the word *ātman* cannot mean *prakṛti*; for the instruction of liberation is given to it⁴. Moreover, the whole chapter ends in the same vein, and there is no further correction of the sense in which the *ātman*, etc., have been used, as might have been the case, if this *ātman* had been rejected later on as bearing a meaning irrelevant to the teaching of release⁵. Moreover, the cause referred to in the above passages is also spoken of in the same textual connection as being the last place of dissolution, to which everything returns⁶. Moreover, there is in all Vedānta texts⁷ a complete agreement in regard to such an interpretation, and there are also explicit statements of the Upaniṣads (*śrutatvāc ca Brahma-sūtra*, I. 1. 11), which declare an Īśvara to be the ultimate cause of the world⁸. So according to Śaṅkara the purport of this topic is that according to these *sūtras* Brahman is the ultimate cause and not *prakṛti*.