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XXVI] Important topics of the Brahma-sutras
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others. The mīmāmsā objection and Sankara's own views are, of course, all rejected on grounds similar to those already dealt with in the first sutra1.
A general review of the other important topics of the Brahma-sūtras.
On the topic (adhikaraṇa) contained in sutras 5-11 Sankara suggests the following argument against the supposed Samkhya claim that the ultimate causality is attributed in the Upanisads to prakṛti and not to Brahman: he says that prakṛti is foreign to the Upanisads; for they speak of perceiving (ikṣater nāśabdam)2, and perceiving can only be true of an intelligent agent. Brahman being all-revealing eternal intelligence, omniscience and perceiving (ikṣati) can very well be attributed to it. The word "perceiving" (ikṣati) of the text cannot be otherwise explained; for its reference to an intelligent agent is further emphasized by its being called ätman (self), a word whose application to conscious agents is well known3; and we are certain that the word atman cannot mean prakṛti; for the instruction of liberation is given to it. Moreover, the whole chapter ends in the same vein, and there is no further correction of the sense in which the atman, etc., have been used, as might have been the case, if this ātman had been rejected later on as bearing a meaning irrelevant to the teaching of release". Moreover, the cause referred to in the above passages is also spoken of in the same textual connection as being the last place of dissolution, to which everything returns. Moreover, there is in all Vedanta texts a complete agreement in regard to such an interpretation, and there are also explicit statements of the Upaniṣads (śrutatvāc ca Brahma-sūtra, 1. 1. 11), which declare an Iśvara to be the ultimate cause of the world. So according to Sankara the purport of this topic is that according to these sūtras Brahman is the ultimate cause and not prakṛti.
1 See Tätparya-candrika (on I. 1. 4), pp. 201-4.
2 The Upanisad passage referred to is tad aikṣata bahu syām, etc. Chandogya, VI. 2. 3.
3 gauņas cet natma-śabdāt, Brahma-sūtra, 1. 1. 6; see also anena jivena ātmanā anupraviśya (Chandogya, VI. 3. 2).
4 tan-nisthasya mokṣopadeśat. Ibid. 1. 1. 7; also text referred to. Chandogya, 5 heyatva-vacanāc ca. Ibid. 1. 1. 8. svapyayat, ibid. 1. 1. 9; also Chandogya, vi. 8. 1. 'gati-sāmānyāt. Ibid. 1. 1. 10.
8 Svetasvatara, VI. 9.
VI. 14. 2.
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