The knowledge of Brahman is independent of action, and not subordinate to it.  It is vidya [compare vision, which has the same etymology], or knowledge, that is alone prescribed in the holy writings, not conduct.  Where, however, there is right knowledge, there will be rightness of life.  But mere rightness of life is nothing; it is that which leads to it and is the cause that is alone commanded and commended [compare the controversy among Christian theologians about faith and works].  The knowledge which saves and enfranchises may be reached by a man in this present life, and will be, if the appropriate means are employed.

    OF BRAHMANHOOD

Meditation is a duty to be observed to the very close of life, and the amount and intensity of it are the measure of a man’s virtue and piety.  When he has reached the full knowledge of Brahman, a man is freed from the consequences [karma] of all his evil deeds, past, present, and future. [One would think that the state of Brahmanhood excluded the possibility of sin, but this Sutra seems to imply the contrary.  The Sutras, however, make a distinction between a lower state of Brahmanhood and a higher.  See below.]

What happens to the knowing one (vidvan) at death?  The soul of him who has at death the lower Brahman knowledge merges into the subtler elements.  But when the highest knowledge is attained there is complete absorption in Brahman.  Whoever dies in possession of this highest knowledge is at once merged in Brahman, and rests eternally and perfectly in him.

The Upanishads describe the stations on the way which leads up to Brahman.  These stations are to be understood not merely as terminuses of the various stages of the journey, but they denote also the divine beings who direct the soul in its progress and enable it to move forward and upward.  According to some Sutras in this book the guardians of the path conducting to the gods lead the departed soul, not to the highest Brahman, but to the effected (karya), or qualified (saguna), Brahman.  But in other Sutras in this book the opposite view is stated and defended, according to which the vidvan, or knower, goes direct to the highest Brahman without halting anywhere short of that god.

The Sutras teach, on the whole, the doctrine that the enfranchised soul, being identical with Brahman, is inseparable from him just as a mode of substance is incapable of existing apart from the substance of which it is a mode.  Ramanuga points out, however, that some of the Sutras in this book give it clearly to be understood that the freed soul can exist in isolation and in separation from the great All.

The released soul can enter several bodies at the same time, since it is not subject to space relations as other souls are.

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THOMAS A KEMPIS

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST