The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c6.s3.t6: 6. Brahman as Free from all Evil

The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c6.s3.t6

Language: English

6. Brahman as Free from all Evil

As is well known, the hymns of the Sâmaveda, with but few exceptions (above p. 5) rest on those of the Rigveda. The composer of the Chândogya-Upanishad (which belongs to the Sâmaveda) takes advantage of this circumstance, to show how, in the provinces of cosmology and psychology, certain phenomena rest on others, while on the contrary Brahman, which is symbolically represented as the man in the sun and the man in the eye, is raised above everything else, and free from all evil.

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As the Sâman rests on the Ric (so is explained Chând. 1, 6), so fire rests on earth, wind on atmosphere, the moon on the stars, on the clear light of the sun rests the black, very dark in it (which, according to the scholiast, is seen by looking very intently at the sun; possibly: the sun-spots are to be understood?). "But the golden man (purusha) who is seen in the interior of the sun with golden beard and golden hair, to the tips of his nails all golden,—his eyes are like the flowers of the Kapyâsa-lotus, his name is "high" (ud), for high above all evil is he; he raises himself high above all evil, who thus knows;—his songs (? geshnau) are Ric and Sâman, therefore [it is said] the high-song (ud-gîtha), therefore also the high-singer (ud-gâtar), for he is his singer; the worlds, which lie upwards from the [sun],—over these he rules, and over the wishes of the gods."

c6.s3.t6.4

What is here set forth in the province of cosmology (adhidaivatam), is then developed in that of psychology (adhyât-mam). As the Sâman rests on the Ric, so rests breath on speech, the image (âtman) on the eye, understanding on the ear, the black, very dark on the bright appearance in the eye. "But the man who is seen in the interior of the eye, “he is this Ṛic, this Sâman, this praise, this sacrificial sentence, “this prayer (*brahman*). The form which the former has, this “also has the latter, the songs of the former are his songs, “the name of the former is his name; the worlds which lie “beneath him,—over these he rules, and over the wishes of “men. Therefore those who sing here to the lute, sing him, “therefore good is their lot.”

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Here, explains Çaṅkara, we must by no means understand by the man in the sun and in the eye, an individual soul raised through knowledge and works (p. 130, 3), but Brahman; for when form and position are attributed to him (p. 130, 6. 9), and the boundaries of his might are spoken of (p. 130, 13), all this happens only for the sake of worship (p. 133, 10. 13. 15), since we are dealing here with the attribute-possessing Brahman, not with the attribute-free (p. 133, 7). Of Brahman alone it can be said that he is “high above all evil” (p. 131, 10), and that he, the all-animating, is indicated as the subject of spiritual as well as of secular songs (p. 132, 1. 8). For of him it is said in the Bhagavadgîtâ (10, 41):

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“All that has might and beauty, vital force,
“Know thou that of my power ’tis a part.”

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We must distinguish between this sun-purusha and the individual soul embodied in the sun (p. 134, 2; cf. above p. 66); for thus says the scripture: (Bṛih. 3, 7, 9) “He who, dwelling “in the sun, is different from the sun, whom the sun knows “not, whose body is the sun, who rules the sun within,—he is “thy soul, thine inner ruler, the immortal.”

Cites (2)

Chāndogyopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad — Sanskrit