Vedanta-Sutras Part I · 29 of 103

Adhyaya I: Pada I: Sutra 6

The objection that Brahman, previously to the origin of the world, is not able to think because it is not connected with a body, &c. does not apply; for Brahman, whose nature is eternal cognition—as the sun’s nature is eternal luminousness— can impossibly stand in need of any instruments of knowledge. The transmigrating soul (samsârin) indeed, which is under the sway of Nescience, &c., may require a body in order that knowledge may arise in it; but not so the Lord, who is free from all impediments of knowledge. The two following Mantras also declare that the Lord does not require a body, and that his knowledge is without any obstructions. ‘There is no effect and no instrument known of him, no one is seen like unto him or better; his high power is revealed as manifold, as inherent, acting as knowledge and force.’ ‘Grasping without hands, hasting without feet, he sees without eyes, he hears without ears. He knows what can be known, but no one knows him; they call him the first, the great person’ (Sv. Up. VI, 8; III, 19).

But, to raise a new objection, there exists no transmigrating soul different from the Lord and obstructed by impediments of knowledge; for Sruti expressly declares that ‘there is no other seer but he; there is no other knower but he’ (Bri. Up. Ill, 7, 23). How then can it be said that the origination of knowledge in the transmigrating soul depends on a body, while it does not do so in the case of the Lord?—True, we reply. There is in reality no transmigrating soul different from the Lord. Still the connexion (of the Lord) with limiting adjuncts, consisting of bodies and so on, is assumed, just as we assume the ether to enter into connexion with divers limiting adjuncts such as jars, pots, caves, and the like. And just as in consequence of connexion of the latter kind such conceptions and terms as ‘the hollow (space) of a jar,’ &c. are generally current, although the space inside a jar is not really different from universal space, and just as in consequence thereof there generally prevails the false notion that there are different spaces such as the space of a jar and so on; so there prevails likewise the false notion that the Lord and the transmigrating soul are different; a notion due to the non-discrimination of the (unreal) connexion of the soul with the limiting conditions, consisting of the body and so on. That the Self, although in reality the only existence, imparts the quality of Selfhood to bodies and the like which are Not-Self is a matter of observation, and is due to mere wrong conception, which depends in its turn on antecedent wrong conception. And the consequence of the soul thus involving itself in the transmigratory state is that its thought depends on a body and the like.

The averment that the pradhâna, because consisting of several elements, can, like clay and similar substances, occupy the place of a cause while the uncompounded Brahman cannot do so, is refuted by the fact of the pradhâna not basing on Scripture. That, moreover, it is possible to establish by argumentation the causality of Brahman, but not of the pradhâna and similar principles, the Sûtrakâra will set forth in the second Adhyâya (II, I, 4, &c.).

Here the Sânkhya comes forward with a new objection. The difficulty stated by you, he says, viz. that the non-intelligent pradhâna cannot be the cause of the world, because thought is ascribed to the latter in the sacred texts, can be got over in another way also, viz. on the ground that non-intelligent things are sometimes figuratively spoken of as intelligent beings. We observe, for instance, that people say of a river-bank about to fall, ‘the bank is inclined to fall (pipatishati),’ and thus speak of a non-intelligent bank as if it possessed intelligence. So the pradhâna also, although non-intelligent, may, when about to create, be figuratively spoken of as thinking.

Just as in ordinary life some intelligent person after having bathed, and dined, and formed the purpose of driving in the afternoon to his village, necessarily acts according to his purpose, so the pradhâna also acts by the necessity of its own nature, when transforming itself into the so-called great principle and the subsequent forms of evolution; it may therefore figuratively be spoken of as intelligent.—But what reason have you for setting aside the primary meaning of the word ‘thought’ and for taking it in a figurative sense?—The observation, the Sânkhya replies, that fire and water also are figuratively spoken of as intelligent beings in the two following scriptural passages, ‘That fire thought; that water thought’ (Kh. Up. VI, 2, 3; 4).

We therefrom conclude that thought is to be taken in a figurative sense there also where Being (Sat) is the agent, because it is mentioned in a chapter where (thought) is generally taken in a figurative sense 1.

To this argumentation of the Sânkhya the next Sutra replies:

Footnotes 48:1 Knowledge can arise only where Goodness is predominant, not where the three qualities mutually counterbalance one another.

49:1 The excess of Sattva in the Yogin would not enable him to rise to omniscience if he did not possess an intelligent principle independent of Sattva.

50:1 Ânanda Giri comments as follows: paroktânupapattim nirasitum prikkhati idam iti. Prakrityarthâbhâvât pratyayârthâbhâvâd vâ brahmano sarvagñateti prasnam eva prakatayati katham iti. Prathamam pratyâha yasyeti. Uktam vyatirekadvârâ vivrinoti anityatve hîti. Dvîtiyam sankate gñâneti. Svato nityasyâpi gñânasya tattadarthâvakkhinnasya kâryatvât tatra svâtantryam pratyayârtho brahmanah sidhyatîty âha.—The knowledge of Brahman is eternal, and in so far Brahman is not independent with regard to it, but it is independent with regard to each particular act of knowledge; the verbal affix in ‘gânâti’ indicating the particularity of the act.

53:1 In the second Khanda of the sixth Prapâthaka of the Kh. Up. ‘aikshata’ is twice used in a figurative sense (with regard to fire and water); it is therefore to be understood figuratively in the third passage also where it occurs.

6.If it is said that (the word ‘seeing’) has a figurative meaning, we deny that, on account of the word Self (being applied to the cause of the world).

Your assertion that the term ‘Being’ denotes the non-intelligent pradhâna, and that thought is ascribed to it in a figurative sense only, as it is to fire and water, is untenable. Why so? On account of the term ‘Self.’ For the passage Kh. Up. VI, 2, which begins ‘Being only, my dear, this was in the beginning,’ after having related the creation of fire, water, and earth (‘it thought,’ &c.; ‘it sent forth fire,’ &c.), goes on—denoting the thinking principle of which the whole chapter treats, and likewise fire, water, and earth, by the term—‘divinities’—as follows, ‘That divinity thought: Let me now enter those three divinities with this living Self (gîva.

âtman) and evolve names and forms.’ If we assumed that in this passage the non-intelligent pradhâna is figuratively spoken of as thinking, we should also have to assume that the same pradhâna—as once constituting the subject-matter of the chapter—is referred to by the term ‘that divinity.’ But in that case the divinity would not speak of the gîva as ‘Self.’ For by the term ‘Giva’ we must understand, according to the received meaning and the etymology of the word, the intelligent (principle) which rules over the body and sustains the vital airs. How could such a principle be the Self of the non-intelligent pradhâna? By ‘Self’ we understand (a being’s) own nature, and it is clear that the intelligent Giva cannot constitute the nature of the non-intelligent pradhâna.

If, on the other hand, we refer the whole chapter to the intelligent Brahman, to which thought in its primary sense belongs, the use of the word ‘Self’ with reference to the Gîva is quite adequate. Then again there is the other passage, ‘That which is that subtle essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the true. It is the Self. That art thou, O Svetaketu’ (Kh. Up. VI, 8, 7, &c.). Here the clause ‘It is the Self’ designates the Being of which the entire chapter treats, viz. the subtle Self, by the word ‘Self,’ and the concluding clause, ‘that art thou, O Svetaketu,’ declares the intelligent Svetaketu to be of the nature of the Self. Fire and water, on the other hand, are non-intelligent, since they are objects (of the mind), and since they are declared to be implicated in the evolution of names and forms. And as at the same time there is no reason for ascribing to them thought in its primary sense—while the employment of the word ‘Self’ furnishes such a reason with reference to the Sat—the thought attributed to them must be explained in a figurative sense, like the inclination of the river-bank. Moreover, the thinking on the part of fire and water is to be understood as dependent on their being ruled over by the Sat. On the other hand, the thought of the Sat is, on account of the word ‘Self,’ not to be understood in a figurative sense. 1

Here the Sânkhya comes forward with a new objection. The word ‘Self,’ he says, may be applied to the pradhâna, although unintelligent, because it is sometimes figuratively used in the sense of ‘that which effects all purposes of another;’ as, for instance, a king applies the word ‘Self’ to some servant who carries out all the king’s intentions, ‘Bhadrasena is my (other) Self.’ For the pradhâna, which effects the enjoyment and the emancipation of the soul, serves the latter in the same way as a minister serves his king in the affairs of peace and war. Or else, it may be said, the one word ‘Self’ may refer to non-intelligent things as well as to intelligent beings, as we see that such expressions as ‘the Self of the elements,’ ‘the Self of the senses,’ are made use of, and as the one word ‘light’ (gyotis) denotes a certain sacrifice (the gyotishtoma) as well as a flame. How then does it follow from the word ‘Self’ that the thinking (ascribed to the cause of the world) is not to be taken in a figurative sense?

To this last argumentation the Sûtrakâra replies:

Footnotes 54:1 So that, on this latter explanation, it is unnecessary to assume a figurative sense of the word ‘thinking’ in any of the three passages.

7.(The pradhâna cannot be designated by the term ‘Self’) because release is taught of him who takes his stand on that (the Sat).