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The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s3.t1: 1. Non-identity and Identity

The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c8.s3.t1

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1. Non-identity and Identity

c8.s3.t1.1

pp. 684, 13—688, 3.

c8.s3.t1.2

The relation of the soul to God is presented by the Scripture in two ways, partly [exoteric] as the relation of a servant to his master and of the part to the whole, and partly [esoteric] as a relation of identity.

c8.s3.t1.3

The position of the soul as servant with God as its master can be conceived in the following way: God (îçvara) by virtue of his connection with unsurpassable (niratiçaya) Upâdhis exercises authority over the soul which is affected only by imperfect (nihîna) Upâdhis (p. 688, 1; our author contents himself here with the remark that the whole relationship depends on the Upâdhis; for greater detail see chap. XX, 3, e, above p. 271).—The soul is further conceived as a part of God; *e. g.* by the simile of the Fire and the sparks (p. 685, 6; cf. above p. 131); further in the passage of the Rigveda X, 90, 3 (cf. chap. XI, 3):

c8.s3.t1.4

“ However great is nature's majesty,
“ The spirit is yet higher raised by far
“ Of it but one foot do all beings make
“ Three feet are immortality in heaven.”

c8.s3.t1.5

where under one foot all animated beings, the immovable (plants) and the movable, are to be understood (p. 687, 3). The passage of *Bhagavadgîtâ* 15, 7 affirms the same (p. 687, 9).

c8.s3.t1.6

However this view of the soul as a part of Brahman is not to be taken strictly, for Brahman has no parts (p. 685, 7); and the case is the same with the passages in which the soul appears as different from Brahman (p. 685, 9); for it is taught on the other hand that all souls, as they have entered “into the complex of organs formed of names and shapes” (*nâma-rûpa-kṛita-kârya-karaṇa-saṅghâta*, i. e. the body), are Brahman Himself (p. 686, 5). Not even the lowest creatures are to be excepted here, as a verse of the Brahman song of the *Atharvanikas* (not found in our collection of Atharva songs) says:

c8.s3.t1.7

“ Brahman are fishers and slaves, and even the players are Brahman”

c8.s3.t1.8

and another (*Çvet*. 4, 3 = *Atharva-V*. X, 8, 27):

c8.s3.t1.9

“ The woman art thou, and the man, the maiden and the boy,
“ Thou art born, and growest in every form, thou totterest in old age.”

c8.s3.t1.10

Thus the soul is sometimes regarded as identical with Brahman, sometimes as a part of Him (p. 686).

c8.s3.t1.11

The passages p. 1127, 14—1128, 14 (translated above p. 111) serve to complete what this passage leaves uncertain; it is there proved from the esoteric standpoint that the soul can be conceived neither a part nor a transformation of Brahman nor as different from him but only as identical with Brahman.—An explanation of this is offered by the image (used pp. 690, 3. 695, 1. 809, 12) of the sun and its reflections in the water (above p. 208) and that of cosmic space, whose local divisions depend only on the limitations of vessels which produce no change in its nature (note 106, above p. 277); cf. also p. 120, 13: “It is however forbidden, in the sense of the “highest reality (*paramârthatas*) to assume a seer or hearer “different from the highest God, when we read (*Bṛih*. 3, 7, 23): “ ‘There is no seer besides him,’ etc. (above p. 149); on the “contrary the highest God differs from the individual soul

c8.s3.t1.12

"created by Ignorance and termed *Vijñânâtman* (cf. note 82)
"which acts and enjoys only in the same way as the magician,
"who in reality remains upon the earth, is different from the
"magician, who with sword and shield climbs up the rope."

Cites (5)