The Vedânta-Sûtras with the Commentary of Râmânuja, Part III — SBE Vol. 48 (trans. George Thibaut, 1904)

But this does not imply that the body does not possess that essentialp. 1 nature : it rather is just the possession of that essential nature on which the judgment of co-ordination (' the Self is a man, god,' &c.) is based. And as words have the power of denoting the relation of something being a mode of the Self, they denote things together with this relation. — But in ordinary speech the word ' body ' is understood to mean the mere body ; it does not therefore extend in its denotation up to the Self! — Not so, we reply. The body is, in reality, nothing but a mode of the Self; but, for the purpose of showing the distinction of things, the word ' body ' is used in a limited sense. Analogously words such as * whiteness/ ' generic character of a cow/ ' species/ ' quality/ are used in a distinctive sense (although l whiteness ' is not found apart from a white thing, of which it is the prakara, and so on). Words such as ' god/ * man/ &c, therefore do extend in their connotation up to the Self. And as the individual souls, distinguished by their connexion with aggregates of matter bearing the characteristic marks of humanity, divine nature, and so on, constitute the body of the highest Self, and hence are modes of it, the words denoting those individual souls extend in their connotation up to the very highest Self. And as all intelligent and non-intelligent beings are thus mere modes of the highest Brahman, and have reality thereby only, the words denoting them are used in co-ordination with the terms denoting Brahman. — This point has been demonstrated by me in the Vedarthasa^graha. A Sutra also (IV, 1, 3) will declare the identity of the world and Brahman to consist in the relation of body and Self; and the Vakyakara too says 'It is the Self — thus everything should be apprehended.'

Summary statement as to the way in which different scriptural texts are to be reconciled.

The whole matter may be summarily stated as follows. Some texts declare a distinction of nature between non-intelligent matter, intelligent beings, and Brahman, in so far as matter is the object of enjoyment, the souls the enjoying subjects, and Brahman the ruling principle. ' From that the Lord of Maya creates all this ; in that the other

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' From that the Lord of Maya creates all this ; in that the otherp. 39 one is bound up through that Maya ' (Svet. Up. IV, 9) ; ' Know Prakrzti to be Maya, and the great Lord the ruler of Maya' (10); 'What is perishable is the Pradhana, the immortal and imperishable is Hara : the one God rules the Perishable and the Self (Svet. Up. I, 10) — In this last passage the clause ' the immortal and imperishable is Hara/ refers to the enjoying individual soul, which is called ' Hara,' because it draws (harati) towards itself the pradhana as the object of its enjoyment. — * He is the cause, the lord of the lords of the organs, and there is of him neither parent nor lord1 (Svet. Up. VI, 9) ; ; The master of the pradhana and of the individual souls' (Svet. Up. VI, 16) ; ' The ruler of all, the lord of the Selfs, the eternal, blessed, undecaying one ' (Mahdnar. Up. XI, 3) ; 'There are two unborn ones, one knowing, the other not knowing, one a ruler, the other not a ruler ' (Svet. Up. I, 9) ; ' The eternal among the non-eternal, the intelligent one among the intelligent, who though one fulfils the desires of many' (Svet. Up. VI, 13) ; ' Knowing the enjoyer, the object of enjoyment and the Mover' (Svet. Up. I, 12); 'One of them eats the sweet fruit, the other looks on without eating ' (Svet. Up. IV, 6) ; ' Thinking that the Self is different from the Mover, blessed by him he reaches Immortality ' (Svet. Up. I, 6) ; ' There is one unborn female being, red, white, and black, uniform but producing manifold offspring. There is one unborn male being who loves her and lies by her ; there is another who leaves her after he has enjoyed her ' (Svet. Up. IV, 5). ' On the same tree man, immersed, bewildered, grieves on account of his impotence; but when he sees the other Lord contented and knows his glory, then his grief passes away ' (Svet. Up. IV, 9). — Smriti expresses itself similarly. — 'Thus eightfold is my nature divided. Lower is this Nature ; other than this and higher know that Nature of mine which constitutes the individual soul, by which this world is supported' (Bha. Gi. VII, 4, 5). 'All beings at the end of a Kalpa return into my Nature, and again at the beginning of a Kalpa do I send them forth. Resting on my own Nature again and again do I send forth this entire body of beings, which has no power of its own,

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Gi. VII, 4, 5). 'All beings at the end of a Kalpa return into my Nature, and again at the beginning of a Kalpa do I send them forth. Resting on my own Nature again and again do I send forth this entire body of beings, which has no power of its own,

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being subject to the power of nature' (Bha. Gi. IX, 7, 8) ; 'With me as supervisor Nature brings forth the movable and the immovable, and for this reason the world ever moves round ' (Bha. Gi. IX, 10) ; ' Know thou both Nature and the Soul to be without beginning' (XIII, 19) ; 'The great Brahman is my womb, in which I place the embryo, and thence there is the origin of all beings' (XIV, 3). This last passage means — the womb of the world is the great Brahman, i.e. non-intelligent matter in its subtle state, commonly called Prakrzti ; with this I connect the embryo, i.e. the intelligent principle. From this contact of the non-intelligent and the intelligent, due to my will, there ensues the origination of all beings from gods down to lifeless things.

Non- intelligent matter and intelligent beings — holding the relative positions of objects of enjoyment and enjoying subjects, and appearing in multifarious forms — other scriptural texts declare to be permanently connected with the highest Person in so far as they constitute his body, and thus are controlled by him ; the highest Person thus constituting their Self. Compare the following passages : ' He who dwells in the earth and within the earth, whom the earth does not know, whose body the earth is, and who rules the earth within, he is thy Self, the ruler within, the immortal,' &c. (Br/. Up. Ill, 7, 3-23) ; ' He who moves within the earth, whose body the earth is, &c. ; he who moves within death, whose body death is,' &c. (Subala Up. VII, 1). In this latter passage the word ' death ' denotes what is also called ' darkness/ viz. non-intelligent matter in its subtle state; as appears from another passage in the same Upanishad, ' the Imperishable is merged in darkness.' And compare also ' Entered within, the ruler of creatures, the Self of all ' (Taitt. Ar . 1 1 1, 24).

Other texts, again, aim at teaching that the highest Self to whom non-intelligent and intelligent beings stand in the relation of body, and hence of modes, subsists in the form of the world, in its causal as well as in its effected aspect, and hence speak of the world in this its double aspect as that which is (the Real); so e.g. ' Being only this was in the beginning, one only without a second — it desired, may

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