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VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
Sûtras, alleged by Sankara to concern the owner of the higher knowledge of Brahman, entitles us to view with some distrust Sankara's assertion that another set also-IV, 4, 1-7-has to be detached from the general topic of the fourth adhyâya, and to be understood as depicting the condition of those who have obtained final absolute release. And the Sûtras themselves do not tend to weaken this preliminary want of confidence. In the first place their wording also gives no indication whatever of their having to be separated from what precedes as well as what follows. And, in the second place, the last Sûtra of the set (7) obliges Sankara to ascribe to his truly released souls qualities which clearly cannot belong to them; so that he finally is obliged to make the extraordinary statement that those qualities belong to them 'vyavahârâpe. kshayâ,' while yet the purport of the whole adhikarana is said to be the description of the truly released soul for which no vyavahâra exists! Very truly Sankara's commentator here remarks, 'atra kekin muhyanti akhandakinmâtragñanan muktasyâgñânâbhâvât kuta âgãiânikadharmayogah,' and the way in which thereupon he himself attempts to get over the difficulty certainly does not improve matters.
In connexion with the two passages discussed, we meet in the fourth adhyâya with another passage, which indeed has no direct bearing on the distinction of aparâ and para vidyâ, but may yet be shortly referred to in this place as another and altogether undoubted instance of Sankara's interpretations not always agreeing with the text of the Sûtras. The Sûtras 7-16 of the third pâda state the opinions of three different teachers on the question to which Brahman the soul of the vidvân repairs on death, oraccording to Râmânuga—the worshippers of which Brahman repair to the highest) Brahman. Râmânuga treats the views of Bâdari and Gaimini as two pûrvapakshas, and the opinion of Bâdarayana, which is stated last—as the siddhânta. Sankara, on the other hand, detaching the Sútras in which Bådarâyana's view is set forth from the preceding part of the adhikarana (a proceeding which, although not
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