The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya Sacred Books of the East, Volume 1

To this we make the following reply.--The word Vai/s/vânara denotes the highest Self, on account of the distinction qualifying the two general terms.--Although the term 'Self,'...

Another (commentator) gives a different interpretation of the mantra, 'Two birds inseparable,' &c. To that mantra, he says, the final decision of the present head of discussion...

To this we make the following reply.--Bhûman can mean the highest Self only, not the vital air.--Why?--'On account of information being given about it, subsequent to bliss.' The...

Hitherto we have established so much that Brahman, intelligent, one, without a second, modifying itself without the employment of any extraneous means, is the cause of the world...

The non-intelligent pradhâna cannot be the object of the term 'Self' because in the passage Ch. Up. VI, 2 ff., where the subtle Sat which is under discussion is at first referre...

An objection is raised against the assertion that prâ/n/a denotes Brahman. The word prâ/n/a, it is said, does not denote the highest Brahman, because the speaker designates hims...

To this we make the following reply.--We by no means assume a question in excess of the number of boons granted, being prevented from doing so by the influence of the opening pa...

There is a further reason for assuming the personality of the gods. The Vedic injunctions, as enjoining sacrificial offerings to Indra and the other gods, presuppose certain cha...

It remains for us to refute the objection that on account of the inferential marks of the individual soul and the chief vital air, which are met with in the complementary passag...

It has been said above that the passage about him who is of the size of a thumb has reference to the human heart, because men are entitled to study and act according to the /s/â...

As therefore the application of the conception of the Ego to the body on the part of those who affirm the existence of a Self different from the body is simply false, not figura...

The /S/rî-bhâshya treats the four Sûtras as one adhikara/n/a whose two first Sûtras are explained as by /S/a@nkara, while Sûtra 29 raises an objection to the conclusion arrived...

The mantra in which the pa/ñk/ajanâ/h/ are mentioned is followed by another one in which breath and four other things are mentioned for the purpose of describing the nature of B...

The pûrvapakshin maintains that Brahman evidently is the operative cause of the world only, because Scripture declares his creative energy to be preceded by reflection. Compare,...

But (our adversary may here be supposed to say), we will fashion our reasoning otherwise, i.e. in such a manner as not to lay it open to the charge of having no proper foundatio...

The whole third adhyâya indeed of the B/ri/hadâra/n/yaka affords ample proof of the artificial character of /S/a@nkara's attempts to show that the teaching of the Upanishads fol...

Nor, again, can we connect Brahman with acts by representing it as the object of the action of knowing. For that it is not such is expressly declared in two passages, viz. 'It i...

[Footnote 69: So, for instance, the passage 'he carves the sacrificial post and makes it eight-cornered,' has a purpose only as being supplementary to the injunction 'he ties th...

The word 'then' is here to be taken as denoting immediate consecution; not as indicating the introduction of a new subject to be entered upon; for the enquiry into Brahman (more...

But, the Sâ@nkhya rejoins, we do likewise not observe activity on the part of mere intelligent beings.--True; we however see activity on the part of non-intelligent things such...

The considerably diverging interpretation given of this adhikara/n/a by Râmânuja has the advantage of more closely connecting the Sûtras with each other. According to him the qu...

We proceed to consider some further arguments opposed to the doctrine that the effect does not exist in the cause.--That doctrine involves the conclusion that the actual origina...

To this we make the following reply.--Before the rise of discriminative knowledge the nature of the individual soul, which is (in reality) pure light, is non-discriminated as it...

We must remark here at once that, whatever commentator may be found to deserve preference on the whole, it appears fairly certain already at the outset that none of the systems...

Owing to the effects of their former actions the individual souls are implicated in the sa/m/sâra, the endless cycle of birth, action, and death, final escape from which is to b...

The pûrvapakshin maintains that the word 'light' denotes nothing else but the light of the sun and the like, since that is the ordinary well-established meaning of the term. The...

The preceding Sûtra has declared that the qualities mentioned are possible in Brahman; the present Sûtra states that they are not possible in the embodied Self. Brahman only pos...

This doctrine we meet as follows.--Your reasoning, we say, is inadmissible 'on account of the impossibility in one thing.' That is to say, it is impossible that contradictory at...

This argumentation of the Bauddha we are unable to accept, because it merely assigns efficient causes for the origination of the members of the series, but does not intimate an...

As Deussen's statement shows, most of the passages discussed are taken from the Chândogya Upanishad, so many indeed that the whole first adhyâya may be said to consist of a disc...

The task of the second pâda is to refute, by arguments independent of Vedic passages, the more important philosophical theories concerning the origin of the world which are oppo...

The hypothesis of him who maintains that the letters are the word may therefore be finally formulated as follows. The letters of which a word consists--assisted by a certain ord...

/S/a@nkara's method thus enables him in a certain way to do justice to different stages of historical development, to recognise clearly existing differences which other systemat...

To all this we make the following reply:--The small ether can mean the highest Lord only, not either the elemental ether or the individual soul.--Why?--On account of the subsequ...

The remaining part of the pâda is by /S/a@nkara divided into two adhikara/n/as. Of these the former one (7-14) teaches that the Brahman to which the departed soul is led by the...

Concerning this system we remark that we do not intend to controvert the doctrine that Nârâya/n/a, who is higher than the Undeveloped, who is the highest Self, and the Self of a...

Beginning with the Sûtras, we find that they supply ample evidence to the effect that already at a very early time, viz. the period antecedent to the final composition of the Ve...

This objection is, however, not valid, because 'maya' is also used in the sense of abundance, i.e. denotes that where there is abundance of what the original word expresses. So,...

The word 'not' (in the Sûtra) has to be supplied from the preceding Sûtra. Although the attributes of seeing, &c., belong to the individual soul, still as the soul is limited by...

We next enquire whether the impression left on the mind by the manner in which Bâdarâya/n/a defines Brahman, viz. that he does not distinguish between an absolute Brahman and a...

This objection we dispose of by the remark, 'It is not so because therefrom would result the fault of want of room for other Sm/ri/tis.'--If you object to the doctrine of the Lo...

The word 'but' discards the doubt raised. We are not entitled to base the assumption of the elements and the sense organs being of an intellectual nature on such passages as 'th...

The teacher has now refuted all the objections, such as difference of character, and the like, which other teachers have brought forward against what he had established as the r...

Your reasoning, we reply, is not valid. The passage from the Kâ/th/aka quoted by you intimates by no means the existence of that great principle and that Undeveloped which are k...

This fundamental assumption of the Vai/s/eshikas we declare to be groundless because from the circumstance of the atoms having colour and other qualities there would follow the...

[Transcriber's Note: This book contains many words with one or two letters in the word printed in italics; those letters are transcribed by enclosing them in slashes, e.g. "karm...

The pûrvapakshin takes the former view. An individual soul, he says, is referred to, since Scripture speaks of a definite shape. To the person in the sun special features are as...

In the sixth prapâ/th/aka of the B/ri/hadâra/n/yaka there is given, in reply to the question, 'Who is that Self?' a lengthy exposition of the nature of the Self, 'He who is with...

But--it may be said--(that would not be a mere assumption, but) Scripture itself, by quoting the parallel instances of clay and so on, declares itself in favour of a Brahman cap...

According to this latter doctrine the process, whose constituting members are the act of knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the result of knowledge[405], is an altogether i...

The pûrvapakshin maintains that the abode is something else, on account of the expression, 'It is the bridge of the Immortal.' For, he says, it is known from every-day experienc...

But perhaps you (the Sâ@nkhya) will say that, after all, suffering (on the part of the soul) is real[346]. In that case, however, the impossibility of release is all the more un...

The word 'but' is meant to rebut the pûrva-paksha (the primâ facie view as urged above). That all-knowing, all-powerful Brahman, which is the cause of the origin, subsistence, a...

[Footnote 392: Ânanda Giri and Go. Ânanda explain: Â/s/râya/s/rayibhûteshv iti bhokt/ri/vi/s/esha/n/am ad/ri/sh/t/â/s/rayeshv ity artha/h/.--The Brahrma-vidyâbhara/n/a says: Nit...