The Vedânta-Sûtras, Part II, with the Commentary by Sankarâkârya — SBE Vol. 38
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The translator’s English as printed (George Thibaut). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
says, 'As small sparks come forth from fire, thus all pra«as come forth from that Self (II, i, 20). And Kh. Up. VI, 10, 2, we read : 'When they have come back from the True they do not know that they have come back from the True.' If there were optional places to which the soul might resort in deep sleep, scripture would teach us that it awakes sometimes from the na^is, sometimes from the pericardium, sometimes from the Self.— For that reason also the Self is the place of deep sleep.
9. But the same (soul returns from Brahman) ; on account of work, remembrance, text, and precept.
Here we have to enquire whether the soul when awaking from the union with Brahman is the same which entered into union with Brahman, or another one. — The purvapakshin maintains that there is no fixed rule on that point. For just as a drop of water, when poured into a large quantity of water, becomes one with the latter, so that when we again take out a drop it would be hard to manage that it should be the very same drop; thus the sleeping soul, when it has become united with Brahman, is merged in bliss and not able again to rise from it the same. Hence what actually awakes is either the Lord or some other soul. — To this we reply that the same soul which in the state of sleep entered into bliss again arises from it, not any other. We assert this on the ground of work, remembrance, sacred text, and precept ; which four reasons we will treat separately. In the first place the person who wakes from sleep must be the same, because it is seen to finish work left unfinished before. Men finish in the morning what they had left incomplete on the day before. Now it is not possible that one man should proceed to complete work half done by another man, because this would imply too much ^
^ There would follow from it, e. g. that in the case of sacrifices occupying more than one day, there would be several sacrificers, and that consequently it would be doubtful to whom the fruit of the sacrifice, as promised by the Veda, belongs. And this would imply a stultification of the sacred text.
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p. 148
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