Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c10.s5.t2: 2. The Departure of the Soul of the Pious

The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c10.s5.t2

Language
English

2. The Departure of the Soul of the Pious

c10.s5.t2.1

Just as in the case of the performer of works, so too in that of the pious, when he dies, the Indriyas enter into Manas, Manas into Prâṇa, Prâṇa into the individual Soul, which, clothed in the subtle body, withdraws itself into the heart, the point of which becomes luminous, to light up the road. But now comes the parting of the ways; of the 101 chief arteries of the body, 100 serve to lead forth the souls of the performers of works from the body in all directions and to cause them to enter upon the Pitṛiyâna; the (exoteric) knower, on the contrary, rises by the 101st artery (note 130) to the head, whence he enters upon the Devayâna. (For details see above chapter XXXI, 2, 3, 5.)

c10.s5.t2.2

For this artery and the Sun are according to Chând. 8, 6, 2. (above p. 162), constantly connected by a ray (raçmi), “as “two villages are by a road” and by this the knower ascends (p. 1105, 12). Whether it is day or night when he dies, is all the same, since this connection of the artery with the ray persists as long as the body (p. 1106, 7). And that this ray is present even at night, can be perceived by the fact that in summer it is warm at night also; at other seasons it is less noticeable because the rays are too weak (p. 1106, 12). Were the ray not present at night one would have to assume either that the knower can ascend even without a ray,—in that case the ray would be altogether superfluous,—or that some of the knowers, those, namely, who die at night time, do not ascend at all, whereby the fruit of knowledge would become conditional (pâkshika); which cannot be admitted (p. 1107, 1. 4). And further it cannot be assumed that he who dies at night awaits the return of day, because by then, as the body is burnt in the meanwhile, there may no longer be any body capable of connection with the ray (p. 1107, 6; whence it seems to follow that the burning of bodies followed quickly upon the occurrence of death; cf. the note above p. 352).

c10.s5.t2.3

On the same grounds (because waiting is impossible, because the fruit of knowledge cannot be conditional, and because the time of death is not determined) we must assume, that the knower, even if he dies during the period when the days are decreasing, reaches the goal; and when the Smriti (Bhagavadgîtâ 8, 23 ff.) teaches that only those who die in the daytime and in the half-year in which the days increase, do not return, it is to be noted that this refers only to the followers of Yoga (above p. 19), and, since it rests only on the Smriti, this has no validity in a doctrine founded on the Çruti (p. 1108, 13).

Cites (2)