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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1But in that case also such qualities as having joy for its head, &c., would have to be ascribed to Brahman everywhere ; for we read in the Taittiriyaka with reference to the Self consisting of Bliss, 'Joy is its head, satisfaction is its right arm, great satisfaction its left arm, bliss is its trunk, Brahman is its tail, its support' (II, 5). To this objection the next Sutra replies. 12. (Such qualities as) joy being its head and so on have no force (for other passages) ; for increase and decrease belong to plurality (only). Attributes such as having joy for its head and so on, which are recorded in the Taittiriyaka, are not to be viewed as having force with regard to other passages treating of Brahman, because the successive terms, 'Joy,' ' Satisfaction,' ' Great Satisfaction,' ' Bliss,' indicate qualities possessing lower and higher degrees with regard to each other and to other enjoyers. Now for higher and lower degrees there is room only where there is plurality ; and Brahman is without all plurality, as we know from many scriptural passages (' One only, without a Second'). — Moreover, we have already demonstrated under I, i, 12, that having joy for one's head and so on are qualities not of Brahman, but of the so-called involucrum of delight. And further, those qualities are attributed to the highest Brahman merely as means of fixing one's mind on it, not as themselves being objects of Ill ADHYAYA, 3 PADA, 1 3. 203
2contemplation, and from this also it follows that they are not valid everywhere^. — That the AMrya refers to them, in the Sutra, as attributes of Brahman (while in reality they are attributes of the anandamaya koj-a) is merely done for the purpose of establishing a general principle to be extended to all attributes of Brahman — also the undoubted ones — which are stated with a view to a special form of meditation only ; such as the quality of being that towards which all blessings go [Kh. Up. IV, 15, 2), or he whose desires are true {Kh. Up. VIII, 7, i). For those passages may all indeed have to do with the one Brahman as the object of meditation, but as owing to the different nature of the opening sentences the meditations are different ones, the attributes mentioned in any one are not valid for the others. The case is analogous to that of two wives ministering to one king, one with a fly-flap, the other with an umbrella ; there also the object of their ministrations is one, but the acts of ministration themselves are distinct and have each their own particular attributes. So in the case under discussion also. Qualities in which lower and higher degrees can be distinguished belong to the qualified Brahman only in which plurality is admitted, not to the highest Brahman raised above all qualification. Such attributes therefore as having true desires and the like which are mentioned in some particular place only have no validity for other meditations on Brahman.
31 3. But other (attributes are valid for all passages relative to Brahman), the purport being the same. Other attributes, however, such as bliss and so on which scripture sets forth for the purpose of teaching the true nature of Brahman are to be viewed as valid for all passages referring to Brahman ; for their purport, i.e. the Brahman ^ For if they are not real attributes of Brahman there is all the less reason to maintain them to be universally valid. The mere means of fixing the mind, moreover, are special to each separate upasana. 204 vedanta-sOtras. whose nature is to be taught, is one. Those attributes are mentioned with a view to knowledge only, not to meditation. 14. (The passage, Ka///aka I, 3, 10, gives information about the person) for the purpose of pious meditation, as there is no use (of the knowledge of the objects being higher than the senses and so on). We read in the Ka///aka (I, 3, 10), ' Higher than the senses are the objects, higher than the objects there is the mind, &c. &c. ; higher than the person there is nothing — this is the goal, the highest road.' — Here the doubt arises whether the purport of the passage is to intimate that each of the things successively enumerated is higher than the preceding one, or only that the person is higher than all of them.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1But in that case also such qualities as having joy for its head, &c., would have to be ascribed to Brahman everywhere ; for we read in the Taittiriyaka with reference to the Self consisting of Bliss, 'Joy is its head, satisfaction is its right arm, great satisfaction its left arm, bliss is its trunk, Brahman is its tail, its support' (II, 5). To this objection the next Sutra replies. 12. (Such qualities as) joy being its head and so on have no force (for other passages) ; for increase and decrease belong to plurality (only). Attributes such as having joy for its head and so on, which are recorded in the Taittiriyaka, are not to be viewed as having force with regard to other passages treating of Brahman, because the successive terms, 'Joy,' ' Satisfaction,' ' Great Satisfaction,' ' Bliss,' indicate qualities possessing lower and higher degrees with regard to each other and to other enjoyers. Now for higher and lower degrees there is room only where there is plurality ; and Brahman is without all plurality, as we know from many scriptural passages (' One only, without a Second'). — Moreover, we have already demonstrated under I, i, 12, that having joy for one's head and so on are qualities not of Brahman, but of the so-called involucrum of delight. And further, those qualities are attributed to the highest Brahman merely as means of fixing one's mind on it, not as themselves being objects of Ill ADHYAYA, 3 PADA, 1 3. 203
2contemplation, and from this also it follows that they are not valid everywhere^. — That the AMrya refers to them, in the Sutra, as attributes of Brahman (while in reality they are attributes of the anandamaya koj-a) is merely done for the purpose of establishing a general principle to be extended to all attributes of Brahman — also the undoubted ones — which are stated with a view to a special form of meditation only ; such as the quality of being that towards which all blessings go [Kh. Up. IV, 15, 2), or he whose desires are true {Kh. Up. VIII, 7, i). For those passages may all indeed have to do with the one Brahman as the object of meditation, but as owing to the different nature of the opening sentences the meditations are different ones, the attributes mentioned in any one are not valid for the others. The case is analogous to that of two wives ministering to one king, one with a fly-flap, the other with an umbrella ; there also the object of their ministrations is one, but the acts of ministration themselves are distinct and have each their own particular attributes. So in the case under discussion also. Qualities in which lower and higher degrees can be distinguished belong to the qualified Brahman only in which plurality is admitted, not to the highest Brahman raised above all qualification. Such attributes therefore as having true desires and the like which are mentioned in some particular place only have no validity for other meditations on Brahman.
31 3. But other (attributes are valid for all passages relative to Brahman), the purport being the same. Other attributes, however, such as bliss and so on which scripture sets forth for the purpose of teaching the true nature of Brahman are to be viewed as valid for all passages referring to Brahman ; for their purport, i.e. the Brahman ^ For if they are not real attributes of Brahman there is all the less reason to maintain them to be universally valid. The mere means of fixing the mind, moreover, are special to each separate upasana. 204 vedanta-sOtras. whose nature is to be taught, is one. Those attributes are mentioned with a view to knowledge only, not to meditation. 14. (The passage, Ka///aka I, 3, 10, gives information about the person) for the purpose of pious meditation, as there is no use (of the knowledge of the objects being higher than the senses and so on). We read in the Ka///aka (I, 3, 10), ' Higher than the senses are the objects, higher than the objects there is the mind, &c. &c. ; higher than the person there is nothing — this is the goal, the highest road.' — Here the doubt arises whether the purport of the passage is to intimate that each of the things successively enumerated is higher than the preceding one, or only that the person is higher than all of them.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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