Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c10.s2.t1: 1. Characteristics of the Sage

The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c10.s2.t1

Language
English

1. Characteristics of the Sage

c10.s2.t1.1

IN contrast to the Devotee, who knows and worships Brahman in the exoteric, theological form, we understand in this and in what follows by the term Sage, him to whom has come *Samyagdarçanam*, perfect knowledge, that is, esoteric knowledge of the higher, attributeless (*param, nirguṇam*) Brahman, and who in consequence of this possesses an immediate consciousness¹³⁶ on the one hand of the identity of his own Self with Brahman, on the other of the illusory character of all that is different (*nānā*) from the Soul, from Brahman, therefore of the whole extended world (*prapañca*), his own body and the other *Upādhis* of the Soul (*indriyas, manas, mukhya prāṇa, sūkṣmam śarīram, karman*) included. For such a one there is no longer any world to be perceived nor any perception, and even his own suffering, since it depends upon perception, is no longer felt by him as pain; on which point compare the fuller treatment above p. 299 and p. 415. Further since all works have only the purpose of attaining pleasure and avoiding pain, while pain and pleasure concern not bodiless, but only embodied Being based upon illusion (above p. 402), for him who has seen through this illusion, all works (Vedic study, sacrifice, alms, asceticism, fasting) are abolished, as also all the injunction of the Veda which command them. And not only does the Part of Works become superfluous, but also that Part of the Veda which treats of knowledge, above p. 21; for this is also only a means to an end: "Thinking and meditating have like hearing (only) "attainment as their purpose;" when that purpose is attained, the scripture has fulfilled its object; as there exists for the awakened neither perception, nor pain, nor action, so there exists for him no Veda either; to him "the Veda is not Veda" as the scripture says (above p. 416). In a word: everything outside Brahman, that is the Self, the Soul, has no more reality for him and can no longer disturb him, just as little as the rope which he mistakenly held to be a snake (note 105, above p. 269) or the trunk, in which in the darkness of his ignorance, he thought he saw a man (p. 86, 12).

c10.s2.t1.2

¹³⁶ *anubhava*; p. 917, 5: "The fruit of Knowledge depends upon immediate consciousness; for the scripture says (Bṛih. 3, 4, 1, translated above p. 141): 'the immanent, not transcendent Brahman;' and the words 'That art thou' (Chānd. 6, 8, 7) denote something already existing and must not be understood as if they meant only: 'That wilt thou become after death;' ... consequently for the knower of Brahman liberation is absolutely accomplished." Cf. p. 987, l. 66, 7. 1055, 10. 1057, 2.

c10.s2.t1.3

(p. 84, 5:) "And yet experience shows how, even for one "who knows Brahman, Samsâra still persists, so that he has "not attained his goal, as in the simile of the rope?--To this "we reply: It must not be maintained that for him who has "recognised that the Soul is Brahman, Samsâra persists as "before, because the knowledge of the Self (the Soul) as "Brahman contradicts this. For so long as he held the body "etc. to be the Self, so long was he affected by pain and "fear, but after that delusion has been destroyed by means of "the knowledge (produced by the Veda), of the Self as Brah"man, then it can no longer be maintained that he is affected "by pain and fear since that depended upon erroneous know"ledge. For so long as for instance, a rich householder has "the consciousness of his wealth, pain arises for him from its "loss; but after he has gone away as a hermit into the forest "(above p. 16) and has freed himself from the conciousness of "his wealth, then there can arise for him no more pain from "the loss of it. And so long as one wears ear-rings, pleasure "arises from the consciousness of wearing them; but after "one has laid them aside and freed oneself from the conscious"ness of wearing ear-rings, then the pleasure in wearing them "no longer exists for him. Therefore the scripture says (Chând. 8, 12, 1): ‘Verily, the bodiless is not touched by pain and pleasure.’ If you maintain that bodilessness is only attained after the dissolution of the body, not during life, then we do not admit this, because being clothed with the body depends (only) upon false cognition. For the circumstance of the Self's being connected with a body can be understood in no other way, than by conceiving it as erroneous knowledge, consisting in the delusion of the body being the Self. For we have seen that [for the Self] the condition of bodilessness is an eternal one, and this because it is not conditioned by action [only what belongs to the fruit of works is perishable]. If however you maintain that being embodied is the consequence of good and evil works done by it [the bodiless Âtman], then we deny this; for since its union with the body is untrue, therefore the assertion is also untrue that the Âtman has done good and evil. For the assertions that it is clothed with a body and has done good and evil works are always supported by each other and therefore lead to the assumption of a regressus in infinitum; and this is comparable to a chain altogether of blind persons each holding the other, since it is impossible for the Âtman to be affected by works, the Âtman being no acting principle.”—(p. 87, 5:) ‘Consequently being clothed with a body depends only upon a false conception, and thus it is proved that the knower of Brahman is, in his life time, already bodiless. Therefore the scripture says (Bṛih. 4, 4, 7, translated above p. 194): ‘As the slough of a snake dead and cast off lies upon an anthill, thus lies this body then, but the bodiless, the immortal, the life is pure Brahman, is pure Light;’ and [where is unknown to me]: ‘with eyes as if without eyes, with ears as if without ears, with speech as if without speech, with Manas as if without Manas, with life as if without life,’ and the Smṛiti shows in the passage: ‘What is the essence of him who is firm in knowledge?’ etc. (Bhagavadgîtâ 2, 54) where it enumerates the characteristics of one who is firm in knowledge and reckons as such that he is set free from all work.—Thus for one who has recognised the Brahmanhood of the Soul, Saṃsâra does not continue “as before, and he for whom it still continues, has in truth “not yet recognised that the Soul is Brahman; that is cer- “tain.”

Cites (3)