Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 38 — The Vedanta-Sutras, Part II (Sankara/Thibaut, page scans)

That the mantra ' two birds,' &c. speaks of the Lord and the individual soul we have already shown under I, 2, 11, —And if, according to the interpretation given in the Paingi- upanishad (and quoted under I, 2, 11), the verse is under- stood to refer to the internal organ (sattva) and the individual soul (not to the individual soul and the Lord), even then there is no contradiction (between that interpre- tation and our present averment that the individual soul is not the abode of heaven and earth). — How so? — Here (i. e. in the present Sutra and the Sutras immediately- preceding) it is denied that the individual soul which, owing to its imagined connexion with the internal organ and other limiting adjuncts, has a separate existence in separate bodies — its division being analogous to the division of universal space into limited spaces such as the spaces within jars and the like — is that which is called the abode of heaven and earth. That same soul, on the other hand, which exists in all bodies, if considered apart from the limit- ing adjuncts, is nothing else but the highest Self. Just as the spaces within jars, if considered apart from their limiting conditions, are merged in universal space, so the individual soul also is incontestably that which is denoted as the abode of heaven and earth, since it (the soul) cannot really be separate from the highest Self. That it is not the abode of heaven and earth, is therefore said of the indi- vidual soul in so far only as it imagines itself to be con- nected with the internal organ and so on. Hence it follows that the highest Self is the abode of heaven, earth, and so on. — The same conclusion has already been arrived at under I, 2, 21 ; for in the passage concerning the source of all beings (which passage is discussed under the Sutra quoted) we meet with the clause, ' In which heaven and

thakkathananupapattir ity uktam eva vyatirekadvaraha anyatheti. Givasyayatanatvenaprakrz'tatve tulyanupapattir iti ^ahkate nanviti. Tasyaikyarthaw lokasiddhasyanuvadatvan naivam ity aha neti. Gfvasyapurvatvabhavena^ratipadyatvam eva praka/ayati kshetra^o hlti. Irvarasyapi lokavadisiddhatvad apratipadyatety ajahkyaha uvaras tv iti.

1 6 2 VEDANTA-sdTRAS.

earth and the sky are woven/ In the present adhikara^a the subject is resumed for the sake of further elucidation.

8. The bhtiman (is Brahman), as the instruction
about it is additional to that about the state of deep
sleep (i. e. the vital air which remains awake even in
the state of deep sleep).

We read (Kk. Up. VII, 23; 34), 'That which is much (bhuman) we must desire to understand. — Sir, I desire to understand it. — Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else, that is what is much (bhuman). Where one sees something else, hears something else, under- stands something else, that is the Little.' — Here the doubt arises whether that which is much is the vital air (pr&zza) or the highest Self. — Whence the doubt? — The word ' bhuman,' taken by itself, means the state of being much, according to its derivation as taught by Pacini, VI, 4, 158. Hence there is felt the want of a specification showing what con- stitutes the Self of that muchness. Here there presents itself at first the approximate passage, ' The vital air is more than hope ' (Kk. Up. VII, 15, 1), from which we may conclude that the vital air is bhuman. — On the other hand, we meet at the beginning of the chapter, where the general topic is stated, with the following passage, ' I have heard from men like you that he who knows the Self overcomes grief. I am in grief. Do, Sir, help me over this grief of mine ; ' from which passage it would appear that the bhuman is the highest Self. — Hence there arises a doubt as to which of the two alternatives is to be embraced, and which is to be set aside.

The purvapakshin maintains that the bhuman is the vital air, since there is found no further series of questions and answers as to what is more. For while we meet with a series of questions and answers (such as, ' Sir, is there something which is more than a name?' — ' Speech is more than name.'— ' Is there something which is more than speech ? ' — ' Mind is more than speech '), which extends from name up to vital air, we do not meet with a similar question and answer as to what might be more than vital air (such as, ' Is there something

I Adhyaya, 3 Pad a, 8. 1 6

which is more than vital air ? ' — ' Such and such a thing is more than vital air '). The text rather at first declares at length (in the passage, 'The vital air is more than hope,' &c.) that the vital air is more than all the members of the series from name up to hope; it then acknowledges him who knows the vital air to be an ativadin, i. e. one who makes a statement surpassing the preceding statements (in the passage, ' Thou art an ativadin. He may say I am an ati- vadin ; he need not deny it ') ; and it thereupon (in the passage, 'But he in reality is an ativadin who declares something beyond by means of the True'1), — not leaving off, but rather continuing to refer to the quality of an ativadin which is founded on the vital air, — proceeds, by means of the series beginning with the True, to lead over to the bhuman; so that we conclude the meaning to be that the vital air is the bhuman. — But, if the bhuman is interpreted to mean the vital air, how have we to explain the passage in which the bhuman is characterised, ' Where one sees nothing else?' &c. — As, the purvapakshin replies, in the state of deep sleep we observe a cessation of all activity, such as seeing, &c, on the part of the organs merged in the vital air, the vital air itself may be charac- terised by a passage such as, ' Where one sees nothing else.' Similarly, another scriptural passage (Pra. Up. IV, % ; 3) de- scribes at first (in the words, ' He does not hear, he does not see,5 &c.) the state of deep sleep as characterised by the cessa- tion of the activity of all bodily organs, and then by declaring that in that state the vital air, with its five modifications, remains awake (' The fires of the pra^as are awake in that town '), shows the vital air to occupy the principal position in the state of deep sleep. — That passage also, which speaks of the bliss of the bhuman (' The bhuman is bliss,' Kh. Up. VII, 23), can be reconciled with our explanation, because Pra. Up. IV, 6 declares bliss to attach to the state of deep sleep (' Then that god sees no dreams and at that time that happiness arises in his body ').— Again, the statement, 'The bhuman is immortality' (Kh. Up. VII, 34, 1), may

1 As might be the prima facie conclusion from the particle ' but '* introducing the sentence ' but he in reality/ &c.

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likewise refer to the vital air ; for another scriptural passage says, ' Pra^a is immortality ' (Kau. Up. Ill, 3). — But how can the view according to which the bhuman is the vital air be reconciled with the fact that in the beginning of the chapter the knowledge of the Self is represented as the general topic (' He who knows the Self overcomes grief,5 &c.) ? — By the Self there referred to, the purvapakshin replies, nothing else is meant but the vital air. For the passage, ' The vital air is father, the vital air is mother, the vital air is brother, the vital air is sister, the vital air is teacher, the vital air is Brahma/za' (Kh. Up. VII, 15, i), represents the vital air as the Self of everything. As, moreover, the passage, * As the spokes of a wheel rest in the nave, so all this rests in pra/za,' declares the pra;za to be the Self of all — by means of a comparison with the spokes and the nave of a wheel — the pra^a may be conceived under the form of bhuman, i. e. plenitude. — Bhuman, therefore, means the vital air.

To this we make the following reply. — Bhuman can mean the highest Self only, not the vital air. — Why? — ' On account of information being given about it, subsequent to bliss/ The word ' bliss ' (samprasada) means the state of deep sleep, as may be concluded, firstly, from the etymology of the word ('In it he, i.e. man, is altogether pleased— samprasi- dati')— and, secondly, from the fact of samprasada being mentioned in the Brzhadara/zyaka together with the state of dream and the waking state. And as in the state of deep sleep the vital air remains awake, the word ' sampra- sada ' is employed in the Sutra to denote the vital air ; so that the Sutra means, 'on account of information being given about the bhuman, subsequently to (the informa- tion given about) the vital air.5 If the bhuman were the vital air itself, it would be a strange proceeding to make statements about the bhuman in addition to the statements about the vital air. For in the preceding passages also we do not meet, for instance, with a statement about name subsequent to the previous statement about name (i. e. the text does not say ' name is more than name '), but after something has been said about name, a new statement is

i adhyAya, 3 pada, 8. 165

made about speech, which is something different from name (i. e. the text says, ' Speech is more than name '), and so on up to the statement about vital air, each subsequent state- ment referring to something other than the topic of the preceding one. We therefore conclude that the bhuman also, the statement about which follows on the statement about the vital air, is something other than the vital air. — But — it may be objected — we meet here neither with a ques- tion, such as, ' Is there something more than vital air ? ' nor with an answer, such as, ' That and that is more than vital air.5 How, then, can it be said that the information about the bhuman is given subsequently to the information about the vital air ? — Moreover, we see that the circumstance of being an ativaldin, which is exclusively connected with the vital air, is referred to in the subsequent passage (viz. ' But in reality he is an ativadin who makes a statement surpassing (the preceding statements) by means of the True '). There is thus no information additional to the information about the vital air. — To this objection we reply that it is impos- sible to maintain that the passage last quoted merely con- tinues the discussion of the quality of being an ativadin, as con- nected with the knowledge of the vital air; since the clause, * He who makes a statement surpassing, &c. by means of the True/ states a specification. — But, the objector resumes, this very statement of a specification may be explained as referring to the vital air. If you ask how, we refer you to an analogous case. If somebody says, ' This Agnihotrin speaks the truth,' the meaning is not that the quality of being an Agnihotrin depends on speaking the truth ; that quality rather depends on the (regular performance of the) agnihotra only, and speaking the truth is mentioned merely as a special attribute of that special Agnihotrin. So our passage also (' But in reality he is an ativadin who makes a statement, &c. by means of the True ') does not intimate that the quality of being an ativadin depends on speaking the truth, but merely expresses that speaking the truth is a special attribute of him who knows the vital air ; while the quality of being an ativ&din must be con- sidered to depend on the knowledge of the vital air. — This

1 66 VEDANTA-stiTRAS.