The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 748 pages of information about The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya.

The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 748 pages of information about The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya.
the consciousness of their individual character.[230] This undeveloped principle is sometimes denoted by the term aka/s/a, ether; so, for instance, in the passage, ’In that Imperishable then, O Gargi, the ether is woven like warp and woof’ (B/ri/.  Up.  III, 8, 11).  Sometimes, again, it is denoted by the term akshara, the Imperishable; so, for instance (Mu.  Up.  II, 1, 2), ‘Higher, than the high Imperishable.’  Sometimes it is spoken of as Maya, illusion; so, for instance (Sve.  Up.  IV, 10), ’Know then Prak/ri/ti is Maya, and the great Lord he who is affected with Maya.’  For Maya is properly called undeveloped or non-manifested since it cannot be defined either as that which is or that which is not.—­The statement of the Ka/th/aka that ’the Undeveloped is beyond the Great one’ is based on the fact of the Great one originating from the Undeveloped, if the Great one be the intellect of Hira/n/yagarbha.  If, on the other hand, we understand by the Great one the individual soul, the statement is founded on the fact of the existence of the individual soul depending on the Undeveloped, i.e.  Nescience.  For the continued existence of the individual soul as such is altogether owing to the relation in which it stands to Nescience.  The quality of being beyond the Great one which in the first place belongs to the Undeveloped, i.e.  Nescience, is attributed to the body which is the product of Nescience, the cause and the effect being considered as identical.  Although the senses, &c. are no less products of Nescience, the term ’the Undeveloped’ here refers to the body only, the senses, &c. having already been specially mentioned by their individual names, and the body alone being left.—­Other interpreters of the two last Sutras give a somewhat different explanation[231].—­There are, they say, two kinds of body, the gross one and the subtle one.  The gross body is the one which is perceived; the nature of the subtle one will be explained later on.  (Ved.  Su.  III, 1, 1.) Both these bodies together were in the simile compared to the chariot; but here (in the passage under discussion) only the subtle body is referred to as the Undeveloped, since the subtle body only is capable of being denoted by that term.  And as the soul’s passing through bondage and release depends on the subtle body, the latter is said to be beyond the soul, like the things (arthavat), i.e. just as the objects are said to be beyond the senses because the activity of the latter depends on the objects.—­But how—­we ask interpreters—­is it possible that the word ‘Undeveloped’ should refer to the subtle body only, while, according to your opinion, both bodies had in the simile been represented as a chariot, and so equally constitute part of the topic of the chapter, and equally remain (to be mentioned in the passage under discussion)?—­If you should rejoin that you are authorised to settle the meaning of what the text actually mentions, but not to find fault with what is not mentioned, and that
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The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.