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The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c9.s6: XXXIV. The Descent of the Soul for a new Embodiment

The System of the Vedânta according to Bâdarâyana's Brahma-Sûtras and Çankara's Commentary c9.s6

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XXXIV. The Descent of the Soul for a new Embodiment

1. The Stages on the Way

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THE road by which the soul descends is like that by which it ascended (p. 759, 10. 769, 9). But it reminds us more of the manner in which the individual elements came forth from Brahman (cf. above p. 230 ff.). As the elements: Âkâça, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, there emanated one after the other in order from the Âtman in progressively increasing density, so the descending soul passes first into the Âkâça, from the Âkâça into the Air, from the Air into Smoke (which here takes the place of the Fire), from smoke—or vapour—it is condensed into Cloud, from which it pours down as Rain, as such nourishes Plants and passes over in the form of plant food into the male body as Seed, whence it comes into a womb corresponding to the merit of its works, to emerge thence in a new embodiment.

2. Duration of the Descent

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Scripture gives no definite information as to the duration of the stay in these various stages (p. 771, 4); still one may assume that the stay is not very protracted (p. 771, 5); for after the entrance of the soul into plants the Scripture says (Chând. 5, 10, 6): "from thence truly it is more difficult to escape" (*durnishprapataram*, according to Çañk. p. 771, 9, cf. on Chând. p. 351, 13 for *durnishprapata-taram* = *durnishkramataram*) whence it may be inferred that the remaining stages are more easily escaped from (p. 771, 11). The endeavour to escape which in these words is ascribed to the Soul, depends on the fact that it desires enjoyment which it does not attain in these intermediate stages but only after entrance into its new body (p. 771, 13).

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3. The Soul sojourns in the various Stages only as a Guest.

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How must we conceive the relation of the Soul to the elements through which it passes? Does it actually become Âkâça, Plant, Seed etc.?—That is not so, but rather the soul on its descent only enjoys the passing hospitality of the elements and souls, through which its road leads, as is proved in detail by our authors.

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When on the moon the watery body, which has been allotted to the soul for its enjoyment (above pp. 371, 378), disappears through the consumption of the enjoyment (p. 770, 5), the Soul passes over into a subtle condition resembling the Âkâça (p. 770, 6), and this the scripture expresses by saying that the Soul becomes Âkâça. That this is not to be taken literally follows from the fact that a thing cannot be transformed into the being of another thing (p. 770, 8), and that in this case an escaping from the Âkâça to the Air etc. would not be possible, since the soul in virtue of the omnipresence of the Âkâça would have to remain eternally united to it (p. 770, 10; that is, probably: from what is everywhere one cannot escape to anywhere else). Thus the Soul does not pass over into the Âkâça, but only into a condition like it; and the same applies to the passing into Air, Smoke, Cloud and Rain.

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The entrance of the Soul into the plant, too, is not to be regarded as a transformation into the soul of that particular plant; for on the contrary each plant has its special soul (jīva p. 773, 3; which, like every embodied soul, is atoning for the deeds of a former existence, and therefore necessarily possesses sensation); the Soul descending from the moon is only received by the plant and takes no part in its pleasure and pain (p. 773, 5, cf. above p. 238 ff.), since enjoying or suffering is only possible as retribution for works done (p. 773, 9).

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Further if the soul entered the plant as its own proper soul it would have to depart at the cutting, shelling, breaking up, cooking and chewing of the plant, for every soul departs as soon as its body is destroyed (p. 774, 1). By this we do not deny that plants also [according to Kâth. 5, 7, translated above p. 373] are places of expiation for souls, which by reason of impure works have sunk down into plant life (p. 774, 6), but we deny that the souls which come from the moon become plant-souls on entering into the plants (p. 774, 8). Further it is not to be admitted that this entering into the plant serves as a punishment for the killing of animals in connection with the work of sacrifice (p. 774, 10); for the privilege (anugraha, p. 775, 6) of killing for the purpose of sacrifice, rests on the injunction of the canon of Scripture, which is the sole authority in reference to good and evil works, because these relate to the Beyond (p. 775, 1); and if the prohibition of killing animals forms the rule, then the injunction to kill them in sacrifice is an exception to it (p. 775, 9).

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In the father's body also, as his own soul has long been there, the soul, which enters into him through food, sojourns as a guest (p. 776, 7), to pass as seed from him into a womb corresponding to its works, whence it comes forth in new embodiment for the retribution of its previous works (p. 776, 13).

4. Retrospect

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However full of contradictions in detail the doctrine of the Soul's transmigration has become through the endeavour to uphold the different accounts in the Veda, as also through a certain carelessness in the handling of secondary matters, peculiar to the Indians, yet in its main outlines this fundamental dogma of Indian religion lies quite clearly before our eyes.

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For perfect knowledge, there is no world and therefore also no transmigration of the Soul. According to the highest truth the Soul cannot wander, because it is the omnipresent, that is, spaceless, Brahman itself. But this the Soul does not know: what prevents its knowing is the Upâdhis which veil from the Soul its own proper nature; these Upâdhis it regards as belonging naturally to its own Self, while in truth they are to be referred to the non-Ego and therefore like the whole world of plurality are non-existent and without reality.

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We saw how to these Upâdhis, apart from the gross body which is laid aside at each death, belongs in the first place the complicated psychic organism, consisting of the organs of cognition, the organs of action, the Manas, the Prâna, and the subtle body, which accompanies the Soul on its wanderings; the Soul has been connected with this unchanging apparatus from eternity, and remains so, liberation apart, for eternity.

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With this is further associated, conditioning its re-embodiment, a variable element: namely works, whether ritual or moral, performed by the Soul in the course of each life. The system declines to make any difference between these two, and not wrongly, in so far as we here find ourselves not in the sphere of morality but in that of Egotism; all works have value and meaning only in so far as they condition the weal and woe of the Soul in the Beyond and in the coming existence. —True, it is God, who assigns this weal and woe to the soul; but he is bound, or binds himself, in this by the works of the previous existence; from these result not only the enjoyment and suffering of the Soul in the following birth; but also the works of the new existence depend on moral determination, that is, on the works of the previous life, with just the same necessity as a plant depends on its seed; and thus one life determines another throughout all world-periods, —for even during the periodical absorptions of the world in Brahman the Soul with its organs, bhûta-âçraya, and karma-âçraya continues to exist like a seed, —and so without cessation ad infinitum.

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To what extent in this the works of one life exert their influence not only upon the next in succession, but upon several lives to come, is a question that cannot be made clear from the statements of our author. Similarly we remain in the dark as to the possibility of a gradual moral purification of the character; true, reference is made p. 1045, 7 to the verse of the Bhagavadgîtâ (6, 45):

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"By many a new birth made pure
"He treads at last the highest path,"

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but how this purification is to be understood in accordance with the system, is hard to say; for the Soul, and equally the organism with which it is clothed, are unchanging in their nature; the moral does not lie in any esse whatever, but in the operari on each case; the latter can raise the soul step by step, but always remains external to it; whence also it does not lead to liberation. Rather it is just these works, which continually reproduce themselves from the works of the previous existence, which hold the Soul emprisoned in the eternal cycle of birth and death (samsâra), which embraces everything that has life (jîva), all Gods, men, animals, and plants, in which an ascent to the divine, a descent to plant life can occur, but from which no escape is possible.

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One thing alone is possible: the awakening to perfect knowledge, in consequence of which the Soul recognises itself as identical with Brahman, and Brahman as the only Being; and thus recognises the whole empirical reality, the Samsâra included, as an illusion.

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He who has reached this esoteric knowledge of the attribute-less Brahman, is at his goal; he knows all that is manifold, the world as well as his own body with all its organs as non-Ego, non-Âtman, non-Existent,—for him death means only the cessation of an illusion, which has already been recognised as illusory, and as unreal, as nothing.

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With the exoteric knowledge it is otherwise: he who has by this recognised Brahman as having attributes, as a personal God and has worshipped him according to this theological form of knowledge, after death mounts upwards on the Devayâna to the lower Brahman and there at last gains the perfect knowledge and therewith liberation. This mediate liberation by the Path of Devayâna is called Kramamukti, "progressive liberation" because it is attained by progress towards Brahman or "liberation by steps" because it is attained by the intermediate step of the exoteric felicity.

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We now turn to describe liberation first in its pure, esoteric form, and then we shall depict the attainment of the same goal by the indirect way of the exoteric Kramamukti.

Cites (3)