The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya...

I.e. in the absence of the mutual superimposition of the Self and the Non-Self and their attributes.

The Mîmâmsâ, i.e. the enquiry whose aim it is to show that the embodied Self, i.e. the individual or personal soul is one with Brahman. This Mîmâmsâ being an enquiry into the meaning of the Vedânta-portions of the Veda, it is also called Vedânta mîmâmsâ.

Nâdhikârârtha iti. Tatra hetur brahmeti. Asyârthah, kám ayam athasabdo brahmajñânekkhyâh kim vântarnîtavikârasya athavekkhâviseshanajñânasyârambhârtha h. Nâdyah tasyâ mîmâmsâpravartikâyâs tadapravartyatvâd anârabhyatvât tasyâs kottaratra pratyadhikaranam apratipâdanât. Na dvitîyozthasabdenânantaryoktidvârâ visishtâdhikâryasamarpane sâdhanakatushtayâsampannânâ m brahmadhîtadvikârayor anarthitvâd vikârânârambhân na ka vikâravidhivasâd adhikârî kalpyah prârambhasyâpi tulyatvâd adhikârinas ka vidhyapekshitopâdhitvân na tritîyah brahmajñânasyânandasâkshâtkâratvenâdhikâryatve z pyaprâdhânyâd athasabdâsambandhât tasmân nârambhârthateti. Ânanda Giri.

Any relation in which the result, i.e. here the enquiry into Brahman may stand to some antecedent of which it is the effect may be comprised under the relation of ânantarya.

He cuts off from the heart, then from the tongue, then from the breast.

Where one action is subordinate to another as, for instance, the offering of the prayâjas is to the darsapûrnamâsa-sacrifice, or where one action qualifies a person for another as, for instance, the offering of the darsapûrnamâsa qualifies a man for the performance of the Soma-sacrifice, there is unity of the agent, and consequently an intimation of the order of succession of the actions is in its right place.

The 'means' in addition to sama and dama are discontinuance of religious ceremonies (uparati), patience in suffering (titikshâ), attention and concentration of the mind (samâdhâna), and faith (sraddhâ).

According to Pânini II, 3, 50 the sixth (genitive) case expresses the relation of one thing being generally supplementary to, or connected with, some other thing.

In the case of other transitive verbs, object and result may be separate; so, for instance, when it is said 'grâmam gakkhati,' the village is the object of the action of going, and the arrival at the village its result. But in the case of verbs of desiring object and result coincide.

That Brahman exists we know, even before entering on the Brahma-mîmâmsâ, from the occurrence of the word in the Veda, &c., and from the etymology of the word we at once infer Brahman's chief attributes.

The three last opinions are those of the followers of the Nyâya, the Sâ@nkhya, and the Yoga-philosophy respectively. The three opinions mentioned first belong to various materialistic schools; the two subsequent ones to two sects of Bauddha philosophers.

As, for instance, the passages 'this person consists of the essence of food;' 'the eye, &c. spoke;' 'non-existing this was in the beginning,' &c.

So the compound is to be divided according to Ân. Gi. and Go.; the Bhâ. proposes another less plausible division.

According to Nirukta I, 2 the six bhâvavikârâh are: origination, existence, modification, increase, decrease, destruction.

The pradhâna, called also prakriti, is the primal causal matter of the world in the Sâ@nkhya-system. It will be fully discussed in later parts of this work. To avoid ambiguities, the term pradhâna has been left untranslated. Cp. Sâ@nkhya Kârikâ 3.

Kekit tu hiranyagaroham samsârinam evâgamâj jagaddhetum âkakshate. Ânanada Giri.

Viz. the Vaiseshikas.

Âtmanah sruter ity arthah. Ânanda Giri.

Text (or direct statement), suggestive power (linga), syntactical connection (vâkya), &c., being the means of proof made use of in the Pûrva Mîmâmsâ.

The so-called sâkshâtkâra of Brahman. The &c. comprises inference and so on.

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 the victim to the sacrificial post.'

If the fruits of the two sâstras were not of a different nature, there would be no reason for the distinction of two sâstras; if they are of a different nature, it cannot be said that the knowledge of Brahman is enjoined for the purpose of final release, in the same way as sacrifices are enjoined for the purpose of obtaining the heavenly world and the like.

The first passage shows that the Self is not joined to the gross body; the second that it is not joined to the subtle body; the third that is independent of either.

Ânanda Giri omits 'atah.' His comment is: prithagjijñâsâvishayatvâk ka dharmâdyasprishtatvam brahmano yuktam ityâha; tad iti; atah sabdapâthe dharmâdyasparse karmaphalavailaksbanyam hetûkritam.—The above translation follows Govindânanda's first explanation. Tat kaivalyam brahmaiva karmaphalavilakshanatvâd ity arthah.

Sampat. Sampan nâmâlpe vastuny âlambane sâmânyena kenakin mahato vastunah sampâdanam. Ânanda Giri.

In which passage the mind, which may be called endless on account of the infinite number of modifications it undergoes, is identified with the Visvedevas, which thereby constitute the chief object of the meditation; the fruit of the meditation being immortality. The identity of the Self with Brahman, on the other hand, is real, not only meditatively imagined, on account of the attribute of intelligence being common to both.

Adhyâsah sâstratoitasmims taddhîh. Sampadi sampâdyamânasya prâdhânyenânudhyânam, adhyâse tu âlambanasyeti viseshah. Ânanda Giri.

Air and breath each absorb certain things, and are, therefore, designated by the same term 'absorber.' Seyam samvargadrishtir vâyau prâne ka dasâsâgatam jagad darsayati yathâ jîvâtmani brimhanakriyayâ brahmadrishtiramritatvâyaphalâyakalpata iti. Bhâmati.

The butter used in the upâmsuyâja is ceremonially purified by the wife of the sacrificer looking at it; so, it might be said, the Self of him who meditates on Brahman (and who as kartri—agent—stands in a subordinate anga-relation to the karman of meditation) is merely purified by the cognition of its being one with Brahman.

An hypothesis which might be proposed for the purpose of obviating the imputation to moksha of non-eternality which results from the two preceding hypotheses.

Viz. things to be originated (for instance, ghatam karoti), things to be obtained (grâmam gakkhati), things to be modified (suvarnam kundalam karoti), and things to be ceremonially purified (vrîhîn prokshati).

Whence it follows that it is not something to be avoided like transitory things.

That, for instance, in the passage 'he is to sacrifice with Soma,' the word 'soma,' which does not denote an action, is devoid of sense.

I.e. for the purpose of showing that the passages conveying information about Brahman as such are justified. You have (the objector maintains) proved hitherto only that passages containing information about existent things are admissible, if those things have a purpose; but how does all this apply to the information about Brahman of which no purpose has been established?

It is 'naturally established' because it has natural motives—not dependent on the injunctions of the Veda, viz. passion and the like.

Elsewhere, i.e. outside the Veda.

The above discussion of the prohibitory passages of the Veda is of a very scholastic nature, and various clauses in it are differently interpreted by the different commentators. Sa@nkara endeavours to fortify his doctrine, that not all parts of the Veda refer to action by an appeal to prohibitory passages which do not enjoin action but abstinence from action. The legitimacy of this appeal might be contested on the ground that a prohibitory passage also, (as, for instance, 'a brâhmana is not to be killed,') can be explained as enjoining a positive action, viz. some action opposed in nature to the one forbidden, so that the quoted passage might be interpreted to mean 'a determination, &c. of not killing a brâhmana is to be formed;' just as we understand something positive by the expression 'a non-brâhmana,' viz. some man who is a kshattriya or something else. To this the answer is that, wherever we can, we must attribute to the word 'not' its primary sense which is the absolute negation of the word to which it is joined; so that passages where it is joined to words denoting action must be considered to have for their purport the entire absence of action. Special cases only are excepted, as the one alluded to in the text where certain prohibited actions are enumerated under the heading of vows; for as a vow is considered as something positive, the non-doing of some particular action must there be understood as intimating the performance of some action of an opposite nature.

The question as to the various meanings of the particle 'not' is discussed in all treatises on the Pûrvâ Mîmâmsâ; see, for instance, Arthasamgraha, translation, p. 39 ff.

The Self is the agent in a sacrifice, &c. only in so far as it imagines itself to be joined to a body; which imagination is finally removed by the cognition of Brahman.

The figurative Self, i.e. the imagination that wife, children, possessions, and the like are a man's Self; the false Self, i.e. the imagination that the Self acts, suffers, enjoys, &c.