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VEDÂNTA-SÛTRAS.
that the very circumstance of its being an unembodied state is the effect of merit, we reply that that cannot be, since Scripture declares that state to be naturally and originally an unembodied one. 'The wise who knows the Self as bodiless within the bodies, as unchanging among changing things, as great and omnipresent does never grieve' (Ka. Up. II, 22); 'He is without breath, without mind, pure' (Mu. Up. II, 1, 2); 'That person is not attached to anything' (Bri. Up. IV, 3, 15)? All which passages establish the fact that so-called release differs from all the fruits of action, and is an eternally and essentially disembodied state. Among eternal things, some indeed may be 'eternal, although changing' (parinâminitya), viz. those, the idea of whose identity is not destroyed, although they may undergo changes; such, for instance, are earth and the other elements in the opinion of those who maintain the eternity of the world, or the three gunas in the opinion of the Sånkhyas. But this (moksha) is eternal in the true sense, i.e. eternal without undergoing any changes (kůtasthanitya), omnipresent as ether, free from all modifications, absolutely self-sufficient, not composed of parts, of selfluminous nature. That bodiless entity in fact, to which merit and demerit with their consequences and threefold time do not apply, is called release; a definition agreeing with scriptural passages, such as the following: Different from merit and demerit, different from effect and cause, different from past and future' (Ka. Up. I, 2, 14). It 2 (i.e. moksha) is, therefore, the same as Brahman in the enquiry into which we are at present engaged. If Brahman were represented as supplementary to certain actions, and re
1 The first passage shows that the Self is not joined to the gross body; the second that it is not joined to the subtle body; the third that is independent of either.
Ananda Giri omits 'atah.' His comment is : prithaggigñtasavishayatvâk ka dharmadyasprishtatvam brahmano yuktam ityâha 1 tad iti i atah sabdapâthe dharmadyasparse karmaphalavailakshanyam hetûkritam.-The above translation follows Govindânarda's first explanation. Tat kaivalyam brahmaiva karmaphala vilakshanat vad ity arthah.
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