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xxxvi
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
lower but the higher Brahman.-According to Râmânuga the two alternatives are Brahman and Brahma (givasamashtirûpos ndâdhipatis katurmukhah).-Adhik. V and VI (comprising, according to Sankara, Sûtras 14-21) | discuss the question whether the small ether within the lotus of the heart mentioned in Kh. Up. VIII, 1 is the elemental ether or the individual soul or Brahman; the last alternative being finally adopted. In favour of the second alternative the pûrvapakshin pleads the two passages Kh. Up. VIII, 3, 4 and VIII, 12, 3, about the serene being (samprasada); for by the latter the individual soul only can be understood, and in the chapter, of which the latter passage forms part, there are ascribed to it the same qualities (viz. freeness from sin, old age, death, &c.) that were predicated in VIII, 1, of the small ether within the heart. But the reply to this is, that the second passage refers not to the (ordinary) individual soul but to the soul in that state where its true nature has become manifest, i.e. in which it is Brahman; so that the subject of the passage is in reality not the so-called individual soul but Brahman. And in the former of the two passages the soul is mentioned not on its own account, but merely for the purpose of intimating that the highest Self is the cause through which the individual soul manifests itself in its true nature.—What Râmânuga understands by the âvirbhâva of the soul will appear from the remarks on
IV, 4.
The two next Sûtras (22, 23) constitute, according to Sankara, a new adhikarana (VII), proving that he after whom everything shines, by whose light all this is lighted' (Katha Up. II, 5, 15) is not some material luminous body, but Brahman itself.- According to Råmânuga the two Sätras do not start a new topic, but merely furnish some further arguments strengthening the conclusion arrived at in the preceding Sûtras.
1 Sûtras 14-21 are divided into two adhikaranas by the Adhikaranaratnamâlâ, but really constitute a simple adhikarana only.
* Itas kaitad evam. Anukrites tasya ka. Tasya daharâkâsasya parabrabmano soukârâd ayam apahatapápmatvädigunako vimuktabandhar pratyagâtmå ua daharâkâsah tadanukâras tatsâmyam tathâ hi pratyayâtmanopi vimuktasya
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