The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c10.s6.t2: 2. The Existence of those who have obtained Lordship

c10.s6.t2.1

The power of wishing possessed by the Blessed presupposes that they also possess *Manas*, the organ of wishing. Whether they are besides provided with a body and with senses, is doubtful. *Bâdari* disputes it, because otherwise it ought not to be said by way of exclusion: "with *Manas* he beholds "those wishes and rejoices in the world of Brahman;" *Jaimini* on the other hand maintains it, appealing to the passage: "he is one, he is threefold," etc. (*Chând*. 7, 26, 2); being threefold presupposes a bodily existence; and even if the passage quoted is taken from the *Bhûmavidyâ*, that is, from a *nirguṇa vidyâ*, yet the *aiśvaryam* to which it refers belongs to the fruit of the *saguṇa vidyâ* (p. 1146, 5). *Bâdarâyaṇa*, finally, assumes, that, because the scripture teaches both, those possessed of lordship can subsist at pleasure either in bodily or in bodiless form (p. 1146, 10); in the latter case the enjoyment of wishes must be conceived as taking place as in dreaming, in the former as in the waking state (p. 1146, 15. 1147, 4).--But how are we to conceive existence in three or more bodies at once? Are they to be conceived as being all animated, or rather, since the Soul cannot multiply itself, as all soul-less except one, like automata (wooden machines, *dâruyantram*)? The answer to this is: as one light can divide itself into several lights, so he who has attained lordship can be in different bodies simultaneously, as without this their moving would be impossible; his *Âtman* rules them, entering into them by means of a division of the *Upâdhis*; just as indeed the books of *Yoga* teach such a connection of the *Yogin* with several bodies (p. 1148, 10; cf. above p. 68). --We must not bring forward here the passages which teach the "unity without a second" of the *Âtman* (above p. 435) for the lordship here described is only the ripened fruit of the branches of knowledge that ascribe attributes (p. 1149, 13).