The phenomenal world or world of ordinary experience (vyavahara) thus consists of a number of individual souls engaged in specific cognitions, volitions, and so on, and of the external material objects with which those cognitions and volitions are concerned. Neither the specific cognitions nor their objects are real in the true sense of the word, for both are altogether due to MkyL But at the same time we have to reject the idealistic doctrine of certain Bauddha schools according to which nothing whatever truly exists, but certain trains of cognitional acts or ideas to which no external objects correspond; for external things, although not real in the strict sense of the word, enjoy at any rate as much reality as the specific cognitional acts whose objects they are.
The non-enlightened soul is unable to look through and beyond M&ya, which, like a veil, hides from it its true nature. Instead of recognising itself to be Brahman, it blindly identifies itself with its adjuncts (upadhi), the fictitious offspring of Maya, and thus looks for its true Self in the body, the sense organs, and the internal organ (manas), i. e. the organ of specific cognition. The soul, which in reality is pure intelligence, non-active, infinite, thus becomes limited in extent, as it were, limited in knowledge and power, an agent and enjoyer. Through its actions it burdens itself with merit and demerit, the consequences of which it has to bear or enjoy in series of future embodied existences, the Lord— as a retributor and dispenser — allotting to each soul that form of embodiment to which it is entitled by its previous actions. At the end of each of the great world periods called kalpas the Lord retracts the whole world, i.e. the whole material world is dissolved and merged into non-distinct Maya, while the individual souls, free for the time from actual connexion with up&dhis, lie in deep slumber as it were. But as the
Introduction. Xxv11
consequences of their former deeds are not yet exhausted, they have again to enter on embodied existence as soon as the Lord sends forth a new material world, and the old round of birth, action, death begins anew to last to all eternity as it has lasted from all eternity.
The means of escaping from this endless sa/^sara, the way out of which can never be found by the non-enlightened soul, are furnished by the Veda. The karmaki^^a indeed, whose purport it is to enjoin certain actions, cannot lead to final release ; for even the most meritorious works necessarily lead to new forms of embodied existence. And in the gnknakiinda. of the Veda also two different parts have to be distinguished, viz., firstly, those chapters and passages which treat of Brahman in so far as related to the world, and hence characterised by various attributes, i. e. of l^vara or the lower Brahman; and, secondly, those texts which set forth the nature of the highest Brahman tran- scending all qualities, and the fundamental identity of the individual soul with that highest Brahman. Devout medi- tation on Brahman as suggested by passages of the former kind does not directly lead to final emancipation; the pious worshipper passes on his death into the world of the lower Brahman only, where he continues to exist as a distinct individual soul — although in the enjoyment of great power and knowledge — until at last he reaches the highest knowledge, and, through it, final release. — That student of the Veda, on the other hand, whose soul has been enlightened by the texts embodying the higher know- ledge of Brahman, whom passages such as the great saying, ' That art thou/ have taught that there is no difference between his true Self and the highest Self, obtains at the moment of death immediate final release, i.e. he withdraws altogether from the influence of Mayd, and asserts himself in his true nature, which is nothing else but the absolute highest Brahman.
Thus vSahkara.— According to Ramanu^a, on the other hand, the teaching of the Upanishads has to be summarised as follows. — There exists only one all-embracing being called Brahman or the highest Self or the Lord. This being is
xxviii vedanta-s6tra$.
not destitute of attributes, but rather endowed with all imaginable auspicious qualities. It is not ' intelligence,' — as 6ankara maintains, — but intelligence is its chief attribute. The Lord is all-pervading, all-powerful, all-knowing, all- merciful ; his nature is fundamentally antagonistic to all evil. He contains within himself whatever exists. While, accord- ing to 5ankara, the only reality is to be found in the non- qualified homogeneous highest Brahman which can only be defined as pure ' Being' or pure thought, all plurality being a mere illusion ; Brahman — according to Ramanu^a's view — ' comprises within itself distinct elements of plurality which all of them lay claim to absolute reality of one and the same kind. Whatever is presented to us by ordinary experience, viz. matter in all its various modifications and the individual souls of different classes and degrees, are essential real constituents of Brahman's nature. Matter and souls (a£it and £it) constitute, according to Rctmanu^a's terminology, the body of the Lord ; they stand to him in the same relation of entire dependence and subserviency in which the matter forming an animal or vegetable body stands to its soul or animating principle. The Lord pervades and rules all things which exist — material or immaterial — as their antaryamin; the fundamental text for this special Ramanu^a tenet— which in the writings of the sect is quoted again and again — is the so-called antaryamin brah- mana. (Brz. Up. Ill, 7) which says, that within all elements, all sense organs, and, lastly, within all individual souls, there abides an inward ruler whose body those elements, sense-organs, and individual souls constitute. — Matter and souls as forming the body of the Lord are also called modes of him (prakara). They are to be looked upon as his effects, but they have enjoyed the kind of individual exist- ence which is theirs from all eternity, and will never be entirely resolved into Brahman. They, however, exist in two different, periodically alternating, conditions. At some times they exist in a subtle state in which they do not possess those qualities by which they are ordinarily known, and there is then no distinction of individual name and form. Matter in that state is unevolved (avyakta) ; the
Introduction. Xxix
individual souls are not joined to material bodies, and their intelligence is in a state of contraction, non-manifestation (sanko>£a). This is the pralaya state which recurs at the end of each kalpa, and Brahman is then said to be in its causal condition (kara;zavastha). To that state all those scriptural passages refer which speak of Brahman or the Self as being in the beginning one only, without a second. Brahman then is indeed not absolutely one, for it contains within itself matter and souls in a germinal condition; but as in that condition they are so subtle as not to allow of individual distinctions being made, they are not counted as something second in addition to Brahman. — When the pralaya state comes to an end, creation takes place owing to an act of volition on the Lord's part. Primary unevolved matter then passes over into its other condition ; it becomes gross and thus acquires all those sensible attributes, visibility, tangi- bility, and so on, which are known from ordinary experience. At the same time the souls enter into connexion with material bodies corresponding to the degree of merit or demerit acquired by them in previous forms of existence ; their intelligence at the same time undergoes a certain expansion (vika^a). The Lord, together with matter in its gross state and the ' expanded' souls, is Brahman in the condition of an effect (karyavastha). Cause and effect are thus at the bottom the same ; for the effect is nothing but the cause which has undergone a certain change (pari- /zama). Hence the cause being known, the effect is known likewise.
Owing to the effects of their former actions the indi- vidual souls are implicated in the sa//zsara, the endless cycle of birth, action, and death, final escape from which is to be obtained only through the study of the gnawa.- kanda. of the Veda. Compliance with the injunctions of the karmaka^a does not lead outside the sa^sara ; but he who, assisted by the grace of the Lord, cognizes — and meditates on — him in the way prescribed by the Upani- shads reaches at his death final emancipation, i.e. he passes through the different stages of the path of the gods up to the world of Brahman and there enjoys an
XXX VED ANTA-SU TR AS.
everlasting blissful existence from which there is no re- turn into the sphere of transmigration. The character- istics of the released soul are similar to those of Brahman ; it participates in all the latter's glorious qualities and powers, excepting only Brahman's power to emit, rule, and retract the entire world.
The chief points in which the two systems sketched above agree on the one hand and diverge on the other may be shortly stated as follows. — Both systems teach advaita, i.e. non-duality or monism. There exist not several fundamentally distinct principles, such as the pra- krzti and the purushas of the Sankhyas, but there exists only one all-embracing being. While, however, the advaita taught by Sankara is a rigorous, absolute one, Ramanii^as doctrine has to be characterised as vlsish/a advaita, i.e. qualified non-duality, non-duality with a difference. Ac- cording to 5ankara, whatever is, is Brahman, and Brahman itself is absolutely homogeneous, so that all difference and plurality must be illusory. According to Ramanu^a also, whatever is, is Brahman ; but Brahman is not of a homo- geneous nature, but contains within itself elements of plurality owing to which it truly manifests itself in a diversified world. The world with its variety of material forms of existence and individual souls is not unreal Maya, but a real part of Brahman's nature, the body investing the universal Self. The Brahman of vSankara is in itself impersonal, a homogeneous mass of objectless thought, transcending all attributes; a personal God it becomes only through its association with the unreal principle of Mayd, so that — strictly speaking — Sankara's personal God, his f ^vara, is himself something unreal. Ramanu^a's Brah- man, on the other hand, is essentially a personal God, the all-powerful and all-wise ruler of a real world permeated and animated by his spirit. There is thus no room for the distinction between a param nirgu^am and an apara^ saguTzam brahma, between Brahman and Lrvara. — vSah- kara's individual soul is Brahman in so far as limited by the unreal upadhis due to Maya. The individual soul of Ramanu^a, on the other hand, is really individual ; it has
Introduction. Xxxi
indeed sprung from Brahman and is never outside Brah- man, but nevertheless it enjoys a separate personal exist- ence and will remain a personality for ever. — The release from sawsara means, according to wSankara, the absolute merging of the individual soul in Brahman, due to the dis- missal of the erroneous notion that the soul is distinct from Brahman ; according to R&manu^a it only means the soul's passing from the troubles of earthly life into a kind of heaven or paradise where it will remain for ever in undisturbed personal bliss. — As Ramanu^a does not distinguish a higher and lower Brahman, the distinction of a higher and lower knowledge is likewise not valid for him ; the teaching of the Upanishads is not twofold but essentially one, and leads the enlightened devotee to one result only1.
I now proceed to give a conspectus of the contents of the Vedanta-sutras according to 6ankara in which at the same time all the more important points concerning which Ramanu^a disagrees will be noted. We shall here have to enter into details which to many may appear tedious. But it is only on a broad substratum of accurately stated details that we can hope to establish any definite conclusions regarding the comparative value of the different modes of interpreta- tion which have been applied to the Sutras. The line of investigation is an entirely new one, and for the present nothing can be taken for granted or known. — In stating the different heads of discussion (the so-called adhikara/zas), each of which comprises one or more Sutras, I shall follow the subdivision into adhikara/zas adopted in the Vyasadhika- ra/zamala, the text of which is printed in the second volume of the Bibliotheca Indica edition of the Sutras.
1 The only • sectarian ' feature of the -Sri-bhashya is, that it identifies Brahman with Vish#u or Narayarca ; but this in no way affects the interpretations put on the Sutras and Upanishads. Narayawa is in fact nothing but another name of Brahman.
XXXI i VEDANTA-S^TRAS.
FIRST ADHYAYA.
PAda I.