The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s5.t2.14

c8.s5.t2.14

“But if besides the highest soul there is no individual soul endowed with intelligence, which exists after the withdrawal of the aggregate of Buddhi, etc., it follows that the highest “soul is itself a wanderer, agent, and enjoyer?—O no! For “enjoyment and activity are based on Ignorance. For so “teaches the Scripture (Brih. 4, 5, 15, translated above p. 175): “ ‘For where a duplicity exists as it were, one sees the other;’ “and after it has shown in these words that activity and en“joyment exist for Ignorance, it denies the existence of the “activity and enjoyment for knowledge, continuing: ‘but where “ ‘all has become for a man as his own self, how should he “ ‘see anyone?’—In the same way the Scripture shows (Brih. “4, 3, 19, translated above p. 190), how the soul in the states “of dreaming and waking in consequence of the contact (sam“parka) with the Upâdhis grows weary like a hawk soaring “in the air, but in deep sleep on the other hand, where it is “embraced by the Self of knowledge there is no weariness: ‘this “ ‘indeed is that nature of his, in which his desire is satiated, “ ‘in which he is himself his desire, without desire and free “ ‘from sorrow;’ and further (above p. 191) summarizing: ‘this “ ‘is his highest goal, this is his highest happiness, this is his “ ‘highest world, this is his highest bliss.’—This is just what “the teacher [Bâdarâyana in the Sûtram in question] says: “ ‘and as a carpenter in both ways’ where ‘and’ has the same “meaning as ‘but’ [a remark which possibly hints at fun“damental differences between Bâdarâyana and Çankara]. I.e., “we must not believe that activity is in the proper nature of “the soul, like heat in that of fire. On the contrary, as in “life a carpenter busies himself with the axe and other tools “in his hand, and feels pain, but afterwards goes home, lays “aside the axe and other tools and in his natural state “rejoicing and at ease feels pleasure, so too the soul, as long “as it is affected by the duality founded on Ignorance, is “busied in the states of dreaming and waking and feels pain; “but when it enters into itself, to throw off weariness, into the “highest self, it is freed from the complex of the organs of “work [the body], is not an agent and feels pleasure in the “state of deep sleep; it is the same in the state of liberation “where it is pure soul (kevala), reposes and is happy after “the gloom of Ignorance is driven away by the torch of know“ledge. The simile of the carpenter is to be taken as follows: