18. But Jaimini thinks that it has another purport, on account of the
question and answer; and thus some also.
The 'but' is meant to preclude the idea that the mention made of the
individual soul enables us to understand the whole section as concerned
with that soul.--The teacher Jaimini is of opinion that the mention made
of the individual soul has another meaning, i.e. aims at conveying the
idea of what is different from the individual soul, i.e. the nature of
the highest Brahman. 'On account of question and answer.' According to
the story told in the Upanishad, Ajatasatru leads Balaki to where a
sleeping man is resting, and convinces him that the soul is different
from breath, by addressing the sleeping person, in whom breath only is
awake, with names belonging to prana [FOOTNOTE 383:1] without the sleeper
being awaked thereby, and after that rousing him by a push of his staff.
Then, with a view to teaching Balaki the difference of Brahman from the
individual soul, he asks him the following questions: 'Where, O Balaki,
did this person here sleep? Where was he? Whence did he thus come back?'
To these questions he thereupon himself replies, 'When sleeping he sees
no dream, then he becomes one in that prana alone.--From that Self the
organs proceed each towards its place, from the organs the gods, from
the gods the worlds.' Now this reply, no less than the questions,
clearly refers to the highest Self as something different from the
individual Self. For that entering into which the soul, in the state of
deep sleep, attains its true nature and enjoys complete serenity, being
free from the disturbing experiences of pleasure and pain that accompany
the states of waking and of dream; and that from which it again returns
to the fruition of pleasure and pain; that is nothing else but the
highest Self. For, as other scriptural texts testify ('Then he becomes
united with the True,' Ch. Up. VI, 8, 1; 'Embraced by the intelligent
Self he knows nothing that is without, nothing that is within,' Bri, Up.
IV, 3, 21), the abode of deep sleep is the intelligent Self which is
different from the individual Self, i.e. the highest Self. We thus
conclude that the reference, in question and answer, to the individual
soul subserves the end of instruction being given about what is
different from that soul, i.e. the highest Self. We hence also reject
the Purvapakshin's contention that question and answer refer to the
individual soul, that the veins called hita are the abode of deep sleep,
and that the well-known clause as to the prana must be taken to mean
that the aggregate of the organs becomes one in the individual soul
called prana. For the veins are the abode, not of deep sleep, but of
dream, and, as we have shown above, Brahman only is the abode of deep
sleep; and the text declares that the individual soul, together with all
its ministering organs, becomes one with, and again proceeds from,
Brahman only--which the text designates as Prana.--Moreover some, viz.
the Vajasaneyins in this same colloquy of Balaki and Ajatasatru as
recorded in their text, clearly distinguish from the vijnana-maya, i.e.
the individual soul in the state of deep sleep, the highest Self which
then is the abode of the individual soul. 'Where was then the person,
consisting of intelligence, and from whence did he thus come back?--When
he was thus asleep, then the intelligent person, having through the
intelligence of the senses absorbed within himself all intelligence,
lies in the ether that is within the heart.' Now the word 'ether' is
known to denote the highest Self; cf. the text 'there is within that the
small ether'(Ch. Up. VIII, 1, 1). This shows us that the individual soul
is mentioned in the Vajasaneyin passage to the end of setting forth what
is different from it, viz. the prajna Self, i.e. the highest Brahman.
The general conclusion therefore is that the Kaushitaki-text under
discussion proposes as the object of knowledge something that is
different from the individual soul, viz. the highest Brahman which is
the cause of the whole world, and that hence the Vedanta-texts nowhere
intimate that general causality belongs either to the individual soul or
to the Pradhana under the soul's guidance. Here terminates the
adhikarana of 'denotation of the world.'
[FOOTNOTE 383:1. The names with which the king addresses the sleeper are
_Great one, clad in white raiment, Soma, king._ The Sru. Pra. comments
as follows: _Great one_; because according to Sruti Prana is the oldest
and best. _Clad in white raiment_; because Sruti says that water is the
raiment of Prana; and elsewhere, that what is white belongs to water.
_Soma_; because scripture says 'of this prana water is the body, light
the form, viz. yonder moon.' _King_; for Sruti says 'Prana indeed is the
ruler.']
19. On account of the connected meaning of the sentences.
In spite of the conclusion arrived at there may remain a suspicion that
here and there in the Upanishads texts are to be met with which aim at
setting forth the soul as maintained in Kapila's system, and that hence
there is no room for a being different from the individual soul and
called Lord. This suspicion the Sutra undertakes to remove, in connexion
with the Maitreyi-brahmana, in the Brihadaranyaka. There we read 'Verily,
a husband is dear, not for the love of the husband, but for the love of
the Self a husband is dear, and so on. Everything is dear, not for the
love of everything, but for the love of the Self everything is dear. The
Self should be seen, should be heard, should be reflected on, should be
meditated upon. When the Self has been seen, heard, reflected upon,
meditated upon, then all this is known' (Bri. Up. IV, 5, 6).--Here the
doubt arises whether the Self enjoined in this passage as the object of
seeing, &c., be the soul as held by the Sankhyas, or the Supreme Lord,
all-knowing, capable of realising all his purposes, and so on. The
Purvapakshin upholds the former alternative. For, he says, the beginning
no less than the middle and the concluding part of the section conveys
the idea of the individual soul only. In the beginning the individual
soul only is meant, as appears from the connexion of the Self with
husband, wife, children, wealth, cattle, and so on. This is confirmed by
the middle part of the section where the Self is said to be connected
with origination and destruction, 'a mass of knowledge, he having risen
from these elements vanishes again into them. When he has departed there
is no more consciousness.' And in the end we have 'whereby should he
know the knower'; where we again recognise the knowing subject, i.e. the
individual soul, not the Lord. We thus conclude that the whole text is
meant to set forth the soul as held by the Sankhyas.--But in the
beginning there is a clause, viz. 'There is no hope of immortality by
wealth,' which shows that the whole section is meant to instruct us as
to the means of immortality; how then can it be meant to set forth the
individual soul only?--You state the very reason proving that the text
is concerned with the individual soul only! For according to the Sankhya-
system immortality is obtained through the cognition of the true nature
of the soul viewed as free from all erroneous imputation to itself of
the attributes of non-sentient matter; and the text therefore makes it
its task to set forth, for the purpose of immortality, the essential
nature of the soul free from all connexion with Prakriti, 'the _Self_
should be heard,' and so on. And as the souls dissociated from Prakriti
are all of a uniform nature, all souls are known through the knowledge
of the soul free from Prakriti, and the text therefore rightly says that
through the Self being known everything is known. And as the essential
nature of the Self is of one and the same kind, viz. knowledge or
intelligence, in all beings from gods down to plants, the text rightly
asserts the unity of the Self 'that Self is all this'; and denies all
otherness from the Self, on the ground of the characteristic attributes
of gods and so on really being of the nature of the Not-self, 'he is
abandoned by everything,' &c. The clause, 'For where there is duality as
it were,' which denies plurality, intimates that the plurality
introduced into the homogeneous Self by the different forms--such as of
gods, and so on--assumed by Prakriti, is false. And there is also no
objection to the teaching that 'the Rig-veda and so on are breathed
forth from that great being (i.e. Prakriti); for the origination of the
world is caused by the soul in its quality as ruler of Prakriti.--It
thus being ascertained that the whole Maitreyi-brahmana is concerned
with the soul in the Sankhya sense, we, according to the principle of
the unity of purport of all Vedanta-texts, conclude that they all treat
of the Sankhya soul only, and that hence the cause of the world is to be
found not in a so-called Lord but in Prakriti ruled and guided by the
soul.
This prima facie view is set aside by the Sutra. The whole text refers
to the Supreme Lord only; for on this supposition only a satisfactory
connexion of the parts of the text can be made out. On being told by
Yajnavalkya that there is no hope of immortality through wealth,
Maitreyi expresses her slight regard for wealth and all such things as
do not help to immortality, and asks to be instructed as to the means of
immortality only ('What should I do with that by which I do not become
immortal? What my lord knows tell that clearly to me'). Now the Self
which Yajnavalkya, responding to her requests, points out to her as the
proper object of knowledge, can be none other than the highest Self; for
other scriptural texts clearly teach that the only means of reaching
immortality is to know the Supreme Person--'Having known him thus man
passes beyond death'; 'Knowing him thus he becomes immortal here, there
is no other path to go' (Svet. Up. III, 8). The knowledge of the true
nature of the individual soul which obtains immortality, and is a mere
manifestation of the power of the Supreme Person, must be held to be
useful towards the cognition of the Supreme Person who brings about
Release, but is not in itself instrumental towards such Release; the
being the knowledge of which the text declares to be the means of
immortality is therefore the highest Self only. Again, the causal power
with regard to the entire world which is expressed in the passage, 'from
that great Being there were breathed forth the Rig veda,' &c., cannot
possibly belong to the mere individual soul which in its state of
bondage is under the influence of karman and in the state of release has
nothing to do with the world; it can in fact belong to the Supreme
Person only. Again, what the text says as to everything being known by
the knowledge of one thing ('By the seeing indeed of the Self,' &c.) is
possible only in the case of a Supreme Self which constitutes the Self
of all. What the Purvapakshin said as to everything being known through
the cognition of the one individual soul, since all individual souls are
of the same type--this also cannot be upheld; for as long as there is a
knowledge of the soul only and not also of the world of non-sentient
things, there is no knowledge of everything. And when the text
enumerates different things ('this Brahman class, this Kshatra class,'
& c.), and then concludes 'all this is that Self'--where the 'this' denotes
the entire Universe of animate and inanimate beings as known through
Perception, Inference, and so on--universal unity such as declared here
is possible only through a highest Self which is the Self of all. It is
not, on the other hand, possible that what the word 'this' denotes, i.e.
the whole world of intelligent and non-intelligent creatures, should be
one with the personal soul as long as it remains what it is, whether
connected with or disassociated from non-sentient matter. In the same
spirit the passage, 'All things abandon him who views all things
elsewhere than in the Self,' finds fault with him who views anything
apart from the universal Self. The qualities also which in the earlier
Maitreyi-brahmana (II, 4, 12) are predicated of the being under
discussion, viz. greatness, endlessness, unlimitedness, cannot belong to
any one else but the highest Self. That Self therefore is the topic of
the Brahmana.
We further demur to our antagonist's maintaining that the entire
Brahmana treats of the individual soul because that soul is at the
outset represented as the object of enquiry, this being inferred from
its connexion with husband, wife, wealth, &c. For if the clause 'for the
love (literally, _for the _desire) of the Self refers to the individual
Self, we cannot help connecting (as, in fact, we must do in any case)
that Self with the Self referred to in the subsequent clause, 'the Self
indeed is to be seen,' &c.; the connexion having to be conceived in that
way that the information given in the former clause somehow subserves
the cognition of the Self enjoined in the latter clause. 'For the desire
of the Self would then mean 'for the attainment of the objects desired
by the Self.' But if it is first said that husband, wife, &c., are dear
because they fulfil the wishes of the individual Self, it could hardly
be said further on that the nature of that Self must be enquired into;
for what, in the circumstances of the case, naturally is to be enquired
into and searched for are the dear objects but not the true nature of
him to whom those objects are dear, apart from the objects themselves.
It would certainly be somewhat senseless to declare that since husband,
wife, &c., are dear because they fulfil the desires of the individual
soul, therefore, setting aside those dear objects, we must enquire into
the true nature of that soul apart from all the objects of its desire.
On the contrary, it having been declared that husband, wife, &c., are
dear not on account of husband, wife, &c., but on account of the Self,
they should not be dropped, but included in the further investigation,
just because they subserve the Self. And should our opponent (in order
to avoid the difficulty of establishing a satisfactory connexion between
the different clauses) maintain that the clause, 'but everything is dear
for the love of the Self,' is not connected with the following clause,
'the Self is to be seen,' &c., we point out that this would break the
whole connexion of the Brahmana. And if we allowed such a break, we
should then be unable to point out what is the use of the earlier part
of the Brahmana. We must therefore attempt to explain the connexion in
such a way as to make it clear why all search for dear objects--husband,
wife, children, wealth, &c.--should be abandoned and the Self only
should be searched for. This explanation is as follows. After having
stated that wealth, and so on, are no means to obtain immortality which
consists in permanent absolute bliss, the text declares that the
pleasant experiences which we derive from wealth, husband, wife, &c..
and which are not of a permanent nature and always alloyed with a great
deal of pain, are caused not by wealth, husband, wife, &c., themselves,
but rather by the highest Self whose nature is absolute bliss. He
therefore who being himself of the nature of perfect bliss causes other
beings and things also to be the abodes of partial bliss, he--the
highest Self--is to be constituted the object of knowledge. The clauses,
'not for the wish of the husband a husband is dear,' &c., therefore must
be understood as follows--a husband, a wife, a son, &c., are not dear to
us in consequence of a wish or purpose on their part, 'may I, for my own
end or advantage be dear to him,' but they are dear to us for the wish
of the Self, i.e. to the end that there may be accomplished the desire
of the highest Self--which desire aims at the devotee obtaining what is
dear to him. For the highest Self pleased with the works of his devotees
imparts to different things such dearness, i.e. joy-giving quality as
corresponds to those works, that 'dearness' being bound in each case to
a definite place, time, nature and degree. This is in accordance with
the scriptural text, 'For he alone bestows bliss' (Taitt. Up. II, 7).
Things are not dear, or the contrary, to us by themselves, but only in
so far as the highest Self makes them such. Compare the text, 'The same
thing which erst gave us delight later on becomes the source of grief;
and what was the cause of wrath afterwards tends to peace. Hence there
is nothing that in itself is of the nature either of pleasure or of pain.'
But, another view of the meaning of the text is proposed, even if the
Self in the clause 'for the desire of the Self' were accepted as
denoting the individual Self, yet the clause 'the Self must be seen'
would refer to the highest Self only. For in that case also the sense
would be as follows--because the possession of husband, wife, and other
so-called dear things is aimed at by a person to whom they are dear, not
with a view of bringing about what is desired by them (viz. husband,
wife, &c.), but rather to the end of bringing about what is desired by
himself; therefore that being which is, to the individual soul,
absolutely and unlimitedly dear, viz. the highest Self, must be
constituted the sole object of cognition, not such objects as husband,
wife, wealth, &c., the nature of which depends on various external
circumstances and the possession of which gives rise either to limited
pleasure alloyed with pain or to mere pain.--But against this we remark
that as, in the section under discussion, the words designating the
individual Self denote the highest Self also, [FOOTNOTE 391:1], the term
'Self' in both clauses, 'For the desire of the Self' and 'The Self is to
be seen,' really refers to one and the same being (viz. the highest
Self), and the interpretation thus agrees with the one given above.--In
order to prove the tenet that words denoting the individual soul at the
same time denote the highest Self, by means of arguments made use of by
other teachers also, the Sutrakara sets forth the two following Sutras.
20. (It is) a mark indicating that the promissory statement is proved;
thus Asmarathya thinks.
According to the teacher Asmarathya the circumstance that terms denoting
the individual soul are used to denote Brahman is a mark enabling us to
infer that the promissory declaration according to which through the
knowledge of one thing everything is known is well established. If the
individual soul were not identical with Brahman in so far as it is the
effect of Brahman, then the knowledge of the soul--being something
distinct from Brahman--would not follow from the knowledge of the
highest Self. There are the texts declaring the oneness of Brahman
previous to creation, such as 'the Self only was this in the beginning'
(Ait. Ar. II, 4, 1, 1), and on the other hand those texts which declare
that the souls spring from and again are merged in Brahman; such as 'As
from a blazing fire sparks being like unto fire fly forth a thousandfold,
thus are various beings brought forth from the Imperishable, and return
thither also' (Mu. Up. II, 1, 1). These two sets of texts together make
us apprehend that the souls are one with Brahman in so far as they are
its effects. On this ground a word denoting the individual soul denotes
the highest Self as well.
[FOOTNOTE 391:1. If it be insisted upon that the Self in 'for the desire
of the Self' is the individual Self, we point out that terms denoting
the individual Self at the same time denote the highest Self also. This
tenet of his Ramanuja considers to be set forth and legitimately proved
in Sutra 23, while Sutras 21 and 22 although advocating the right
principle fail to assign valid arguments.]
21. Because (the soul) when it will depart is such; thus Audulomi thinks.
It is wrong to maintain that the designation of Brahman by means of
terms denoting the individual soul is intended to prove the truth of the
declaration that through the knowledge of one thing everything is known,
in so far namely as the soul is an effect of Brahman and hence one with
it. For scriptural texts such as 'the knowing Self is not born, it dies
not' (Ka. Up. I, 2, 18), declare the soul not to have originated, and it
moreover is admitted that the world is each time created to the end of
the souls undergoing experiences retributive of their former deeds;
otherwise the inequalities of the different parts of the creation would
be inexplicable. If moreover the soul were a mere effect of Brahman, its
Release would consist in a mere return into the substance of Brahman,--
analogous to the refunding into Brahman of the material elements, and
that would mean that the injunction and performance of acts leading to
such Release would be purportless. Release, understood in that sense,
moreover would not be anything beneficial to man; for to be refunded
into Brahman as an earthen vessel is refunded into its own causal
substance, i.e. clay, means nothing else but complete annihilation. How,
under these circumstances, certain texts can speak of the origination
and reabsorption of the individual soul will be set forth later on.--
According to the opinion of the teacher Audulomi, the highest Selfs
being denoted by terms directly denoting the individual soul is due to
the soul's becoming Brahman when departing from the body. This is in
agreement with texts such as the following, 'This serene being having
risen from this body and approached the highest light appears in its
true form' (Kh. Up. VIII, 3, 4); 'As the flowing rivers disappear in the
sea, losing their name and form, thus a wise man freed from name and
form goes to the divine Person who is higher than the high' (Mu. Up. III,
2, 8).
22. On account of (Brahman's) abiding (within the individual soul); thus
Kasakritsna (holds).
We must object likewise to the view set forth in the preceding Sutra,
viz. that Brahman is denoted by terms denoting the individual soul
because that soul when departing becomes one with Brahman. For that view
cannot stand the test of being submitted to definite alternatives.--Is
the soul's not being such, i.e. not being Brahman, previously to its
departure from the body, due to its own essential nature or to a
limiting adjunct, and is it in the latter case real or unreal? In the
first case the soul can never become one with Brahman, for if its
separation from Brahman is due to its own essential nature, that
separation can never vanish as long as the essential nature persists.
And should it be said that its essential nature comes to an end together
with its distinction from Brahman, we reply that in that case it
perishes utterly and does not therefore become Brahman. The latter view,
moreover, precludes itself as in no way beneficial to man, and so on.--
If, in the next place, the difference of the soul from Brahman depends
on the presence of real limiting adjuncts, the soul is Brahman even
before its departure from the body, and we therefore cannot reasonably
accept the distinction implied in saying that the soul becomes Brahman
only when it departs. For on this view there exists nothing but Brahman
and its limiting adjuncts, and as those adjuncts cannot introduce
difference into Brahman which is without parts and hence incapable of
difference, the difference resides altogether in the adjuncts, and hence
the soul is Brahman even before its departure from the body.--If, on the
other hand, the difference due to the adjuncts is not real, we ask--what
is it then that becomes Brahman on the departure of the soul?--Brahman
itself whose true nature had previously been obscured by Nescience, its
limiting adjunct!--Not so, we reply. Of Brahman whose true nature
consists in eternal, free, self-luminous intelligence, the true nature
cannot possibly be hidden by Nescience. For by 'hiding' or 'obscuring'
we understand the cessation of the light that belongs to the essential
nature of a thing. Where, therefore, light itself and alone constitutes
the essential nature of a thing, there can either be no obscuration at
all, or if there is such it means complete annihilation of the thing.
Hence Brahman's essential nature being manifest at all times, there
exists no difference on account of which it could be said to _become_
Brahman at the time of the soul's departure; and the distinction
introduced in the last Sutra ('when departing') thus has no meaning. The
text on which Audulomi relies, 'Having risen from this body,' &c., does
not declare that that which previously was not Brahman becomes such at
the time of departure, but rather that the true nature of the soul which
had previously existed already becomes manifest at the time of departure.
This will be explained under IV, 4, 1.
The theories stated in the two preceding Sutras thus having been found
untenable, the teacher Kasakritsna states his own view, to the effect
that words denoting the jiva are applied to Brahman because Brahman
abides as its Self within the individual soul which thus constitutes
Brahman's body. This theory rests on a number of well-known texts,
'Entering into them with this living (individual) soul let me evolve
names and forms' (Ch. Up. VI, 3, 2); 'He who dwelling within the Self,
& c., whose body the Self is,' &c. (Bri. Up. III, 7, 22); 'He who moves
within the Imperishable, of whom the Imperishable is the body,' &c;
'Entered within, the ruler of beings, the Self of all.' That the term
'jiva' denotes not only the jiva itself, but extends in its denotation
up to the highest Self, we have explained before when discussing the
text, 'Let me evolve names and forms.' On this view of the identity of
the individual and the highest Self consisting in their being related to
each other as body and soul, we can accept in their full and unmutilated
meaning all scriptural texts whatever--whether they proclaim the
perfection and omniscience of the highest Brahman, or teach how the
individual soul steeped in ignorance and misery is to be saved through
meditation on Brahman, or describe the origination and reabsorption of
the world, or aim at showing how the world is identical with Brahman.
For this reason the author of the Sutras, rejecting other views, accepts
the theory of Kasakritsna. Returning to the Maitreyi-brahmana we proceed
to explain the general sense, from the passage previously discussed
onwards. Being questioned by Maitreyi as to the means of immortality,
Yajnavalkya teaches her that this means is given in meditation on the
highest Self ('The Self is to be seen,' &c.). He next indicates in a
general way the nature of the object of meditation ('When the Self is
seen,' &c.), and--availing himself of the similes of the drum, &c.--of
the government over the organs, mind, and so on, which are instrumental
towards meditation. He then explains in detail that the object of
meditation, i.e. the highest Brahman, is the sole cause of the entire
world; and the ruler of the aggregate of organs on which there depends
all activity with regard to the objects of the senses ('As clouds of
smoke proceed,' &c.; 'As the ocean is the home of all the waters'). He,
next, in order to stimulate the effort which leads to immortality, shows
how the highest Self abiding in the form of the individual Self, is of
one uniform character, viz. that of limitless intelligence ('As a lump
of salt,' &c.), and how that same Self characterised by homogeneous
limitless intelligence connects itself in the Samsara state with the
products of the elements ('a mass of knowledge, it rises from those
elements and again vanishes into them'). He then adds, 'When he has
departed, there is no more knowledge'; meaning that in the state of
Release, where the soul's unlimited essential intelligence is not
contracted in any way, there is none of those specific cognitions by
which the Self identifying itself with the body, the sense-organs, &c.,
views itself as a man or a god, and so on. Next--in the passage, 'For
where there is duality as it were'--he, holding that the view of a
plurality of things not having their Self in Brahman is due to ignorance,
shows that for him who has freed himself from the shackles of ignorance
and recognises this whole world as animated by Brahman, the view of
plurality is dispelled by the recognition of the absence of any
existence apart from Brahman. He then proceeds, 'He by whom he knows all
this, by what means should he know Him?' This means--He, i.e. the
highest Self, which abiding within the individual soul as its true Self
bestows on it the power of knowledge so that the soul knows all this
through the highest Self; by what means should the soul know Him? In
other words, there is no such means of knowledge: the highest Self
cannot be fully understood by the individual soul. 'That Self,' he
continues, 'is to be expressed as--not so, not so!' That means--He, the
highest Lord, different in nature from everything else, whether sentient
or non-sentient, abides within all beings as their Self, and hence is
not touched by the imperfections of what constitutes his body merely. He
then concludes, 'Whereby should he know the Knower? Thus, O Maitreyi,
thou hast been instructed. Thus far goes Immortality'; the purport of
these words being--By what means, apart from the meditation described,
should man know Him who is different in nature from all other beings,
who is the sole cause of the entire world, who is the Knower of all, Him
the Supreme Person? It is meditation on Him only which shows the road to
Immortality. It thus appears that the Maitreyi-brahmana is concerned
with the highest Brahman only; and this confirms the conclusion that
Brahman only, and with it Prakriti as ruled by Brahman, is the cause of
the world.--Here terminates the adhikarana of 'the connexion of
sentences.'
23. (Brahman is) the material cause on account of this not being in
conflict with the promissory statements and the illustrative instances.
The claims raised by the atheistic Sankhya having thus been disposed of,
the theistic Sankhya comes forward as an opponent. It must indeed be
admitted, he says, that the Vedanta-texts teach the cause of the world
to be an all-knowing Lord; for they attribute to that cause thought and
similar characteristics. But at the same time we learn from those same
texts that the material cause of the world is none other than the
Pradhana; with an all-knowing, unchanging superintending Lord they
connect a Pradhana, ruled by him, which is non-intelligent and undergoes
changes, and the two together only they represent as the cause of the
world. This view is conveyed by the following texts, 'who is without
parts, without actions, tranquil, without fault, without taint' (Svet.
Up. VI, 18); 'This great unborn Self, undecaying, undying' (Bri. Up. IV,
4, 25); 'He knows her who produces all effects, the non-knowing one, the
unborn one, wearing eight forms, the firm one. Ruled by him she is
spread out, and incited and guided by him gives birth to the world for
the benefit of the souls. A cow she is without beginning and end, a
mother producing all beings' (see above, p. 363). That the Lord creates
this world in so far only as guiding Prakriti, the material cause, we
learn from the following text, 'From that the Lord of Maya creates all
this. Know Maya to be Prakriti and the Lord of Maya the great Lord'
(Svet. Up. IV, 9, 10). And similarly Smriti, 'with me as supervisor
Prakriti brings forth the Universe of the movable and the immovable'
(Bha. GI. IX, 10). Although, therefore, the Pradhana is not expressly
stated by Scripture to be the material cause, we must assume that there
is such a Pradhana and that, superintended by the Lord, it constitutes
the material cause, because otherwise the texts declaring Brahman to be
the cause of the world would not be fully intelligible. For ordinary
experience shows us on all sides that the operative cause and the
material cause are quite distinct: we invariably have on the one side
clay, gold, and other material substances which form the material causes
of pots, ornaments, and so on, and on the other hand, distinct from them,
potters, goldsmiths, and so on, who act as operative causes. And we
further observe that the production of effects invariably requires
several instrumental agencies. The Vedanta-texts therefore cannot
possess the strength to convince us, in open defiance of the two
invariable rules, that the one Brahman is at the same time the material
and the operative cause of the world; and hence we maintain that Brahman
is only the operative but not the material cause, while the material
cause is the Pradhana guided by Brahman.
This prima facie view the Sutra combats. Prakriti, i.e. the material
cause, not only the operative cause, is Brahman only; this view being in
harmony with the promissory declaration and the illustrative instances.
The promissory declaration is the one referring to the knowledge of all
things through the knowledge of one, 'Did you ever ask for that
instruction by which that which is not heard becomes heard?' &c. (Ch, Up.
VI, 1, 3). And the illustrative instances are those which set forth the
knowledge of the effect as resulting from the knowledge of the cause,
'As by one lump of clay there is made known all that is made of clay; as
by one nugget of gold, &c.; as by one instrument for paring the nails,'
& c. (Ch. Up. VI, 1, 4). If Brahman were merely the operative cause of the
world, the knowledge of the entire world would not result from the
knowledge of Brahman; not any more than we know the pot when we know the
potter. And thus scriptural declaration and illustrative instances would
be stultified. But if Brahman is the general material cause, then the
knowledge of Brahman implies the knowledge of its effect, i.e. the world,
in the same way as the knowledge of such special material causes as a
lump of clay, a nugget of gold, an instrument for paring the nails,
implies the knowledge of all things made of clay, gold or iron--such as
pots, bracelets, diadems, hatchets, and so on. For an effect is not a
substance different from its cause, but the cause itself which has
passed into a different state. The initial declaration thus being
confirmed by the instances of clay and its products, &c., which stand in
the relation of cause and effect, we conclude that Brahman only is the
material cause of the world. That Scripture teaches the operative and
the material causes to be separate, is not true; it rather teaches the
unity of the two. For in the text, 'Have you asked for that adesa (above,
and generally, understood to mean "instruction"), by which that which is
not heard becomes heard?' the word 'adesa' has to be taken to mean _ruler_,
in agreement with the text, 'by the command--or rule--of that
Imperishable sun and moon stand apart' (Bri. Up. III, 8, 9), so that the
passage means, 'Have you asked for that Ruler by whom, when heard and
known, even that which is not heard and known, becomes heard and known?'
This clearly shows the unity of the operative (ruling or supervising)
cause and the material cause; taken in conjunction with the subsequent
declaration of the unity of the cause previous to creation, 'Being only,
this was in the beginning, one only,' and the denial of a further
operative cause implied in the further qualification 'advitiyam,' i.e.
'without a second.'--But how then have we to understand texts such as
the one quoted above (from the Kulika-Upanishad) which declare Prakriti
to be eternal and the material cause of the world?--Prakriti, we reply,
in such passages denotes Brahman in its causal phase when names and
forms are not yet distinguished. For a principle independent of Brahman
does not exist, as we know from texts such as 'Everything abandons him
who views anything as apart from the Self; and 'But where for him the
Self has become all, whereby should he see whom?' (Bri. Up. II, 4, 6;
15). Consider also the texts, 'All this is Brahman' (Ch. Up. III, 14, 1);
and 'All this has its Self in that' (Ch. Up. VI, 8, 7); which declare
that the world whether in its causal or its effected condition has
Brahman for its Self. The relation of the world to Brahman has to be
conceived in agreement with scriptural texts such as 'He who moves
within the earth,' &c., up to 'He who moves within the Imperishable';
and 'He who dwells within the earth,' &c., up to 'He who dwells within
the Self (Bri. Up. III, 7, 3-23). The highest Brahman, having the whole
aggregate of non-sentient and sentient beings for its body, ever is the
Self of all. Sometimes, however, names and forms are not evolved, not
distinguished in Brahman; at other times they are evolved, distinct. In
the latter state Brahman is called an effect and manifold; in the former
it is called one, without a second, the cause. This causal state of
Brahman is meant where the text quoted above speaks of the cow without
beginning and end, giving birth to effects, and so on.--But, the text,
'The great one is merged in the Unevolved, the Unevolved is merged in
the Imperishable,' intimates that the Unevolved originates and again
passes away; and similarly the Mahabharata says, 'from that there sprung
the Non-evolved comprising the three gunas; the Non-evolved is merged in
the indivisible Person.'--These texts, we reply, present no real
difficulty. For Brahman having non-sentient matter for its body, that
state which consists of the three gunas and is denoted by the term
'Unevolved' is something effected. And the text, 'When there was
darkness, neither day nor night,' states that also in a total pralaya
non-sentient matter having Brahman for its Self continues to exist in a
highly subtle condition. This highly subtle matter stands to Brahman the
cause of the world in the relation of a mode (prakara), and it is
Brahman viewed as having such a mode that the text from the Kul.
Upanishad refers to. For this reason also the text, 'the Imperishable is
merged in darkness, darkness becomes one with the highest God,' declares
not that darkness is completely merged and lost in the Divinity but only
that it becomes one with it; what the text wants to intimate is that
state of Brahman in which, having for its mode extremely subtle matter
here called 'Darkness,' it abides without evolving names and forms. The
mantra, 'There was darkness, hidden in darkness,' &c. (Ri. Samh. X, 129,
3), sets forth the same view; and so does Manu (I, 5), 'This universe
existed in the shape of Darkness, unperceived, destitute of distinctive
marks, unattainable by reasoning, unknowable, wholly immersed as it were
in deep sleep.' And, as to the text, 'from that the Lord of Maya creates
everything,' we shall prove later on the unchangeableness of Brahman,
and explain the scriptural texts asserting it.
As to the contention raised by the Purvapakshin that on the basis of
invariable experience it must be held that one and the same principle
cannot be both material and operative cause, and that effects cannot be
brought about by one agency, and that hence the Vedanta-texts can no
more establish the view of Brahman being the sole cause than the command
'sprinkle with fire' will convince us that fire may perform the office
of water; we simply remark that the highest Brahman which totally
differs in nature from all other beings, which is omnipotent and
omniscient, can by itself accomplish everything. The invariable rule of
experience holds good, on the other hand, with regard to clay and
similar materials which are destitute of intelligence and hence
incapable of guiding and supervising; and with regard to potters and
similar agents who do not possess the power of transforming themselves
into manifold products, and cannot directly realise their intentions.--
The conclusion therefore remains that Brahman alone is the material as
well as the operative cause of the Universe.
24. And on account of the statement of reflection.
Brahman must be held to be both causes for that reason also that texts
such as 'He desired, may I be many, may I grow forth,' and 'It thought,
may I be many, may I grow forth,' declare that the creative Brahman
forms the purpose of its own Self multiplying itself. The text clearly
teaches that creation on Brahman's part is preceded by the purpose 'May
I, and no other than I, become manifold in the shape of various non-
sentient and sentient beings.'
25. And on account of both being directly declared.
The conclusion arrived at above is based not only on scriptural
declaration, illustrative instances and statements of reflection; but in
addition Scripture directly states that Brahman alone is the material as
well as operative cause of the world. 'What was the wood, what the tree
from which they have shaped heaven and earth? You wise ones, search in
your minds, whereon it stood, supporting the worlds.--Brahman was the
wood, Brahman the tree from which they shaped heaven and earth; you wise
ones, I tell you, it stood on Brahman, supporting the worlds.'--Here a
question is asked, suggested by the ordinary worldly view, as to what
was the material and instruments used by Brahman when creating; and the
answer--based on the insight that there is nothing unreasonable in
ascribing all possible powers to Brahman which differs from all other
beings--declares that Brahman itself is the material and the instruments;--
whereby the ordinary view is disposed of.--The next Sutra supplies a
further reason.
26. On account of (the Self) making itself.
Of Brahman which the text had introduced as intent on creation, 'He
wished, may I be many' (Taitt. Up. II, 6), a subsequent text says, 'That
itself made its Self (II, 7), so that Brahman is represented as the
object as well as the agent in the act of creation. It being the Self
only which here is made many, we understand that the Self is material
cause as well as operative one. The Self with names and forms non-
evolved is agent (cause), the same Self with names and forms evolved is
object (effect). There is thus nothing contrary to reason in one Self
being object as well as agent.
A new doubt here presents itself.--'The True, knowledge, infinite is
Brahman' (Taitt. Up. II, 1); 'Bliss is Brahman' (Bri. Up. III, 9, 28);
'Free from sin, free from old age, free from death and grief, free from
hunger and thirst' (Ch. Up. VIII, 1,5); 'Without parts, without action,
tranquil, without fault, without taint' (Svet. Up. VI, 19); 'This great
unborn Self, undecaying, undying' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 25)--from all these
texts it appears that Brahman is essentially free from even a shadow of
all the imperfections which afflict all sentient and non-sentient beings,
and has for its only characteristics absolutely supreme bliss and
knowledge. How then is it possible that this Brahman should form the
purpose of becoming, and actually become, manifold, by appearing in the
form of a world comprising various sentient and non-sentient beings--all
of which are the abodes of all kinds of imperfections and afflictions?
To this question the next Sutra replies.
27. Owing to modification.
This means--owing to the essential nature of modification (parinama).
The modification taught in our system is not such as to introduce
imperfections into the highest Brahman, on the contrary it confers on it
limitless glory. For our teaching as to Brahman's modification is as
follows. Brahman--essentially antagonistic to all evil, of uniform
goodness, differing in nature from all beings other than itself, all-
knowing, endowed with the power of immediately realising all its
purposes, in eternal possession of all it wishes for, supremely blessed--
has for its body the entire universe, with all its sentient and non-
sentient beings--the universe being for it a plaything as it were--and
constitutes the Self of the Universe. Now, when this world which forms
Brahman's body has been gradually reabsorbed into Brahman, each
constituent element being refunded into its immediate cause, so that in
the end there remains only the highly subtle, elementary matter which
Scripture calls Darkness; and when this so-called Darkness itself, by
assuming a form so extremely subtle that it hardly deserves to be called
something separate from Brahman, of which it constitutes the body, has
become one with Brahman; then Brahman invested with this ultra-subtle
body forms the resolve 'May I again possess a world-body constituted by
all sentient and non-sentient beings, distinguished by names and forms
just as in the previous aeon,' and modifies (parinamayati) itself by
gradually evolving the world-body in the inverse order in which
reabsorption had taken place.
All Vedanta-texts teach such modification or change on Brahman's part.
There is, e.g., the text in the Brihad-Aranyaka which declares that the
whole world constitutes the body of Brahman and that Brahman is its Self.
That text teaches that earth, water, fire, sky, air, heaven, sun, the
regions, moon and stars, ether, darkness, light, all beings, breath,
speech, eye, ear, mind, skin, knowledge form the body of Brahman which
abides within them as their Self and Ruler. Thus in the Kanva-text; the
Madhyandina-text reads 'the Self' instead of 'knowledge'; and adds the
worlds, sacrifices and vedas. The parallel passage in the Subala-
Upanishad adds to the beings enumerated as constituting Brahman's body
in the Brihad-Aranyaka, buddhi, ahamkara, the mind (kitta), the Un-
evolved (avyakta), the Imperishable (akshara), and concludes 'He who
moves within death, of whom death is the body, whom death does not know,
he is the inner Self of all, free from all evil, divine, the one god
Narayana. The term 'Death' here denotes matter in its extremely subtle
form, which in other texts is called Darkness; as we infer from the
order of enumeration in another passage in the same Upanishad, 'the
Unevolved is merged in the Imperishable, the Imperishable in Darkness.'
That this Darkness is called 'Death' is due to the fact that it obscures
the understanding of all souls and thus is harmful to them. The full
text in the Subala-Up. declaring the successive absorption of all the
beings forming Brahman's body is as follows, 'The earth is merged in
water, water in fire, fire in air, air in the ether, the ether in the
sense-organs, the sense-organs in the tanmatras, the tanmatras in the
gross elements, the gross elements in the great principle, the great
principle in the Unevolved, the Unevolved in the Imperishable; the
Imperishable is merged in Darkness; Darkness becomes one with the
highest Divinity.' That even in the state of non-separation (to which
the texts refer as 'becoming one') non-sentient matter as well as
sentient beings, together with the impressions of their former deeds,
persists in an extremely subtle form, will be shown under II, 1, 35. We
have thus a Brahman all-knowing, of the nature of supreme bliss and so
on, one and without a second, having for its body all sentient and non-
sentient beings abiding in an extremely subtle condition and having
become 'one' with the Supreme Self in so far as they cannot be
designated as something separate from him; and of this Brahman Scripture
records that it forms the resolve of becoming many--in so far, namely,
as investing itself with a body consisting of all sentient and non-
sentient beings in their gross, manifest state which admits of
distinctions of name and form--and thereupon modifies (parinama) itself
into the form of the world. This is distinctly indicated in the
Taittiriya-Upanishad, where Brahman is at first described as 'The True,
knowledge, infinite,' as 'the Self of bliss which is different from the
Self of Understanding,' as 'he who bestows bliss'; and where the text
further on says, 'He desired, may I be many, may I grow forth. He
brooded over himself, and having thus brooded he sent forth all whatever
there is. Having sent forth he entered it. Having entered it he became
sat and tyat, defined and undefined, supported and non-supported,
knowledge and non-knowledge, real and unreal.' The 'brooding' referred
to in this text denotes knowing, viz. reflection on the shape and
character of the previous world which Brahman is about to reproduce.
Compare the text 'whose brooding consists of knowledge' (Mu. Up. I, 1,
9). The meaning therefore is that Brahman, having an inward intuition of
the characteristics of the former world, creates the new world on the
same pattern. That Brahman in all kalpas again and again creates the
same world is generally known from Sruti and Smriti. Cp. 'As the creator
formerly made sun and moon, and sky and earth, and the atmosphere and
the heavenly world,' and 'whatever various signs of the seasons are seen
in succession, the same appear again and again in successive yugas and
kalpas.'
The sense of the Taittiriya-text therefore is as follows. The highest
Self, which in itself is of the nature of unlimited knowledge and bliss,
has for its body all sentient and non-sentient beings--instruments of
sport for him as it were--in so subtle a form that they may be called
non-existing; and as they are his body he may be said to consist of them
(tan-maya). Then desirous of providing himself with an infinity of
playthings of all kinds he, by a series of steps beginning with Prakriti
and the aggregate of souls and leading down to the elements in their
gross state, so modifies himself as to have those elements for his body--
when he is said to consist of them--and thus appears in the form of our
world containing what the text denotes as sat and tyat, i.e. all
intelligent and non-intelligent things, from gods down to plants and
stones. When the text says that the Self having entered into it became
sat and tyat, the meaning is that the highest Self, which in its causal
state had been the universal Self, abides, in its effected state also,
as the Self of the different substances undergoing changes and thus
becomes this and that. While the highest Self thus undergoes a change--
in the form of a world comprising the whole aggregate of sentient and
non-sentient beings--all imperfection and suffering are limited to the
sentient beings constituting part of its body, and all change is
restricted to the non-sentient things which constitute another part. The
highest Self is _effected_ in that sense only that it is the ruling
principle, and hence the Self, of matter and souls in their gross or
evolved state; but just on account of being this, viz. their inner Ruler
and Self, it is in no way touched by their imperfections and changes.
Consisting of unlimited knowledge and bliss he for ever abides in his
uniform nature, engaged in the sport of making this world go round. This
is the purport of the clause 'it became the real and the unreal':
although undergoing a change into the multiplicity of actual sentient
and non-sentient things, Brahman at the same time was the Real, i.e.
that which is free from all shadow of imperfection, consisting of
nothing but pure knowledge and bliss. That all beings, sentient and non-
sentient, and whether in their non-evolved or evolved states, are mere
playthings of Brahman, and that the creation and reabsorption of the
world are only his sport, this has been expressly declared by Dvaipayana,
Parasara and other Rishis,'Know that all transitory beings, from the
Unevolved down to individual things, are a mere play of Hari'; 'View his
action like that of a playful child,' &c. The Sutrakara will distinctly
enounce the same view in II, 1, 33. With a similar view the text 'from
that the Lord of Maya sends forth all this; and in that the other is
bound by Maya' (Svet. Up. IV, 9), refers to Prakriti and soul, which
together constitute the body of Brahman, as things different from
Brahman, although then, i.e. at the time of a pralaya, they are one with
Brahman in so far as their extreme subtlety does not admit of their
being conceived as separate; this it does to the end of suggesting that
even when Brahman undergoes the change into the shape of this world, all
changes exclusively belong to non-sentient matter which is a mode of
Brahman, and all imperfections and sufferings to the individual souls
which also are modes of Brahman. The text has to be viewed as agreeing
in meaning with 'that Self made itself.' Of a similar purport is the
account given in Manu, 'He being desirous to send forth from his body
beings of many kinds, first with a thought created the waters and placed his seed in them' (I, 8). |
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