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INTRODUCTION.
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Sûtras of the second pâda of the second adhyâya (Vedântasûtras) refer to a distinctive tenet of the Bhâgavatas—which tenet forms part of the Râmânuga system also—viz. that the highest being manifests itself in a fourfold form (vyûha) as Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, those four forms being identical with the highest Self, the individual soul, the internal organ (manas), and the principle of egoity (ahankâra). Whether those Sutras embody an approval of the tenet referred to as Râmânuga maintains, or are meant to impugn it, as Sankara thinks; so much is certain that in the opinion of the best commentators the Bhâgavatas, the direct forerunners of the Râmânugas, are mentioned in the Sûtras themselves, and hence must not only have existed, but even reached a considerable degree of importance at the time when the Satras were composed. And considering the general agreement of the systems of the earlier Bhagavatas and the later Ramânugas, we have a full right to suppose that the two sects were at one also in their mode of interpreting the Vedanta-stras.
The preceding considerations suffice, I am inclined to think, to show that it will by no means be wasted labour to
rprets the Satras, and wherein he differs from Sankara. This in fact seems clearly to be the first step we have to take, if we wish to make an attempt at least of advancing beyond the interpretations of scholiasts to the meaning of the Sûtras themselves. A full and exhaustive comparison of the views of the two commentators would indeed far exceed the limits of the space which can here be devoted to that task, and will, moreover, be made with greater ease and advantage when the complete Sanskrit text of the Srî-bhâshya has been printed, and thus made available for general reference. But meanwhile it is possible, and as said before-even urged upon a translator of the Satras to compare the interpretations, given by the two bhâshyakâras, of those Sûtras, which, more than others, touch on the essential points of the Vedanta system! This
1 Owing to the
i Owing to the importance of the Sankara-bhashya as the fundamental work of the most influential Hindu school of philosophy, the number of topics which might be discussed in the introduction to its translation is considerable. But
Hindu school of phics translation is con
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