________________
XXXI] Vallabha's Interpretation of the Brahma-sūtra 325 not been taken by Pūrva-mīmāmsā. The purpose of the Brahmasūtra is the same as that of the Pūrva-mīmāmsā, because enquiry into the nature of the Brahman is also due to the injunction that Brahman should be known, and the highest dharma is produced thereby. The Uttara-mīmāmsā is a supplement of the Pūrvamimāmsā. According to Madhva it is those who have devotion who are eligible for enquiry into the nature of Brahman.
Vallabha combines the second and the third sūtra of Adhyāya I, Pāda i, of the Brahma-sūtra and reads them as Janmādyasya yataḥ, śāstrayonitvāt. The commentator says that this is the proper order, because all topics (adhikaranas) show the objections, conclusions and the reasons; the reasons would be missing if the third sūtra (sāstrayonitvāt) were not included in the second, forming one adhikarana. Brahman is the cause of the appearance and disappearance of the world, and this can be known only on the evidence of the scriptures. Brahman is thus the final and the ultimate agent; but, though production and maintenance, derangement and destruction are all possible through the agency of Brahman, yet they are not associated with Him as His qualities. The sūtra may also be supposed to mean that that is Brahman from which the first (i.e., ākāśa) has been produced?.
The view of Sankara that Brahman is the producer of the Vedas and that by virtue of this He must be regarded as omniscient is rejected to-day by Purusottama. To say the Vedas had been produced by God by His deliberate desire would be to accept the views of the Nyāya and Vaiseșikas; the eternity of the Vedas must then be given up. If the Vedas had come out of Brahman like the breath of a man, then, since all breathing is involuntary, the production of the Vedas would not show the omniscience of God (niḥśvāsātmaka-vedopādānatvena abuddhi-pūrvaka-niḥśvāsopādāna-puruşadrsțānta-sanāthena pratisādhanena apāstam)2. Moreover, if Brahman had produced the Vedas in the same order in which they existed in the previous kalpa, He must in doing so have submitted Himself to some necessity or law, and therefore was not independent3. Again, the view of Sankara that the Brahman associated
Janma ādyasya ākāśasya yataḥ Anubhāsya, p. 61. . Commentary on Anubhāsya, p. 64.
* tādrśānupūrvi-racanayā asvātantrye rājajñānuvādaka-rāja-dutavadānupūrvi-racanā-mātreneśvara-sārvajñāsiddhyā vyākhyeya-grantha-virodhāc ca. Ibid. p. 64.
