The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c5.s6.t3.16

c5.s6.t3.16

“Are there then two Brahmans, a higher and a lower?—There are “certainly two; as is seen from the words: ‘In truth, o Satyakâma, this “sound *Om* is the higher and the lower Brahman’ (Praçna 5, 2).—What “then is the higher Brahman, and what the lower?—To this we answer: “Where, by discarding the differences of name, form and the like, ascribed “by Ignorance, Brahman is indicated by the [purely negative] expressions “ ‘nor gross [nor fine, nor short, nor long]’ and so on (Brih. 3, 8, 8) it is “the higher. But where, on the contrary, exactly the same [reality], for “the purpose of worship, is described as distinguished by some difference “or other, for example, in words like: ‘Spirit is his material, life his “body, light his form’ (Chând. 3, 14, 2), it is the lower.—But does that “not contradict the word of the scripture, that it is ‘without a second’ “(Chând. 6, 2, 1)?—Not at all! [The contradiction] disappears, because “ascribed limitations like name and form spring from Ignorance. But “the fruit of the worship of this lower Brahman is, according to the “context ‘If he desires the world of the fathers’ and so on (Chând. 8, “2, 1) a world-lordship (*jagad-aiçvaryam*) belonging to Samsâra, since “Ignorance is not [yet] destroyed. Now this [fruit] [p. 1134] is connected “with a given place; therefore a going, in order to gain it, is no con- “tradiction. It is true the soul is all-present; but as space [ether] enters “into the vessel and the like, it also enters into connection with ascribed “limitation (*upâdhi*) like Buddhi and the rest, and so far a going is “assumed for it, concerning which we have spoken, with reference to the “Sûtra: ‘because it [the soul in the condition of Samsâra] is the nucleus “of its [Buddhi’s] qualities [love, hate, desire, sorrow, etc.]’ (2, 3, 29).”