The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s6.t1: 1. Preliminary Survey

The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c8.s6.t1

Language: English

1. Preliminary Survey

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REGARDED from the standpoint of knowledge the soul is Brahman Himself and completely identical (*ananya*) with Him. The plurality of souls is illusory; each one of us is the whole, undivided Brahman; as such each is infinite, omnipresent, all-pervading, eternal and changeless, omnipotent and omniscient; without differences and without organs, neither agent nor enjoyer, neither sinning nor suffering, in his essence pure intelligence (*caitanyam*), an organless, objectless, painless, pure cognition. As such the soul is in us merely an onlooker (*sâkshin*) who in all cognition, present as its innermost nucleus looks on idly at worldly action and at its illusions without being in the least mixed up in it: *sa, yat tatra kiñcit paçyati, an-anvâgatas tena bhavati; asaṅgo hi ayaṃ puruṣaḥ* (Brih. 4, 3, 16).

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This is not so from the standpoint of Ignorance. For just as a man whose eyes are affected sees two moons where there is in reality only one—or as the sun is reflected in the water in a thousand images, each of which is not a part but the whole of the sun, though in truth a mere phantom without real existence,—so the Ignorant sees instead of one Brahman without a second (which is his own Self) a plurality consisting of 1) a God (*īçvara*) whose office is that of dispensing retribution, 2) a world which is the scene of this retribution, and 3) a given number of souls subject to the limitations of individuality; they wander from eternity and in each new existence suffer retribution for the works of the previous life; for this purpose after each death a new body, corresponding exactly to the merits and faults of the previous life, arises out of the seed of the body with which the soul is inseparably connected; and this happens again and again without cessation during all eternity.—It is true these souls are in reality neither individual nor wandering; each one of them is on the contrary the *Âtman* (besides which nothing else exists), *i.e.*, the omniscient and omnipotent *Brahman* itself in his completeness. But the soul does not know that this is so, because it has not the proper knowledge of its own Self, in that its own nature is hidden from it. What prevents this self-knowledge, in which the soul is at once the perceiving subject and perceived object, is *Avidyâ*; *Avidyâ* puts itself between the soul as subject and the soul as object; and is sometimes characterised subjectively as defective intellectual force, sometimes objectively as defective perceptibility. The soul is from the subjective point of view compared to a blind man (above p. 87), whose lost sight can only be restored by the remedy of grace; objectively it is the *Upâdhis* by which the divine nature of the soul is disguised and as it were rendered latent like fire which slumbers hidden in the wood:

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(p. 787, 9:) "The omniscience and omnipotence of the soul is hidden by its connection with the body, *i.e.*, by the connection with body, senses, Manas, Buddhi, external objects and sensation. On this subject we have this simile: just as fire has as properties burning and illuminating; but the heat and light are hidden when the fire has entered into wood or is covered with ashes, in the same way through the connection of the soul with the *Upâdhis* such as body etc. which are created of Ignorance and formed of name and shape, arises the error of not distinguishing ourself from them [the *Upâdhis*] and this produces the concealment of the omniscience and omnipotence of the soul."

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These *Upâdhis* which condition the individualisation of the soul, are, taking these all in all, the following:

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I) The coarse body (*deha, sthûla-çarîram*) consisting of the elements; the soul casts it off at death.

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II) Among what accompanies the soul on its migration we distinguish:

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for he possesses all the necessary powers (*çakti* of which immediately) perfect within himself.

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It is true that milk etc. are unintelligent substances, and we see that beings with intelligence, like potters etc., call in the aid of instruments. Thus we may suppose it to be with Brahman, as he also is an intelligent being.—To this can be opposed the fact that gods also, and ancestors, and Rishis, who are certainly beings possessed of intelligence, through their own power, without external means, according to their innate sovereignty, and through meditation alone, creat many variously shaped bodies, palaces, carriages etc., as the Hymns and Brâhmaṇas as well as the epic and mythological works attest. Further, we must remember that the spider puts forth her thread from herself, that female cranes become fertilised without seed, and that lotus-flowers wander from one pond to another without outward means of transit. The applicability of these comparisons may be contested, because the gods accomplish their deeds only by taking bodily forms to aid them, and not by the spiritual Self alone, because the saliva of the spider, after it has been stiffened by eating smaller creatures, becomes threads, because the female cranes are fertilised⁹⁵ when they hear the voice of the thunder, because the lotus-flowers do not wander among the ponds by means of their unintelligent bodies, but precisely because they are endowed with intelligence, as climbing plants find their way to trees;—but to all this we can reply that the creatures named do not, like the potter, use [external instruments in

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⁹⁵ p. 477, 15: *balâkâ ca antareṇa eva çukram garbham dhatte*; p. 768 6: *balâkâ api antareṇa eva retaḥ-sekam garbham dhatte*, *iti loke rûḍhiḥ*; p. 478, 8: *balâkâ ca stanayitnu-rava-çravaṇâd garbham dhatte*. These indications may serve to clear up the passage *Meghadûta* v. 9, which, as appears from Stenzler's note on page 29, has hitherto been understood differently:

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*garbha-âdhâna-kṣaṇa-paricayân nûnam âbaddha-mâlâḥ*
*sevishyante nayana-subhagam khe bhavantam balâkâḥ*

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"Surely wilt thou [O Cloud], when thou floatest in the air, rejoicing the "eye, be honored by the female cranes in their serried ranks, because "they conclude (*colligunt*) [from thy arising] that the moment for receiv-"ing the fruits of the body [in the tempest] draws near."

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consisting of the systems of the conscious and unconscious life, which the soul (like a snail with its horns) puts out during life and at death withdraws into itself; the special enquiry is preceded by the question as to the origin and nature of the Prāṇas, i.e., of the whole psychic organism.

Cites (1)

Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad — Sanskrit