Brahma-Sūtra 1.3.15

English of translation of Brahmasutra 1.3.15 by Roma Bose:

“On account or going and of word, for thus it is seen, there is a mark as well.”

Nimbārka’s commentary (Vedānta-pārijāta-saurabha):

The “going” is mentioned in the text: ‘All beings are going day by day’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 8.3.2^[1]), and the “word” is ‘The world of Brahman’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 8.3.2^[2]),—on account of these two, the ‘small one’ is ascertained to be the Supreme Being. The daily going is “seen thus” in another scriptural text too, viz.: ‘“Then, my dear, he comes to be united with the Existent’” (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 6.8.1^[3]). If the karmadhāraya compound he understood,^[4] then Brahman alone is ‘the mark’, i.e. the primary meaning of the word (‘Brahma-loka’) “as well”.

Śrīnivāsa’s commentary (Vedānta-kaustubha)

For this reason too, says the author, the small ether is the Highest Self.

The subsequent reasons are being amplified now. In the text about the small-ether, viz.: ‘Just as those who do not know the place move again and again over a hidden treasure of gold, but do not find it, so these beings are going day by day to that world of Brahman but do not find it, for they are carried away by untruth’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 8.3.2), the phrase: ‘are going day by day’ states the “going”; and the “word” is: ‘this world of Brahman’, (Brahma-loka)—on account of these two, it is known that the small ether is the Highest Self. The sense is that because of the going of the individual souls, indicated by the term ‘beings’, to Brahman daily during deep sleep when all the sense-organs are dissolved; and because of the word ‘world of Brahman’, the small ether is ascertained to he none but the Highest Self, as the individual soul is one who approaches (and hence cannot be the goal approached), and as going is not appropriate on the part of the elemental ether. “For thus it is seen”, i.e. the going of all beings to the Highest Self alone day by day during the state of deep sleep, as well as their return therefrom, are found, in the very same manner, in other passages too, viz.: ‘“So exactly, my dear, all these beings, being united with the Existent, do not know; we have become united with the Existent”’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 6.9.2), “‘Having come back from the Existent, they do not know: We have come back from the Existent’” (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 6.10.1). In the very same manner, the term ‘world of Brahman’, too, is found applied to the Highest Self, as in the passage: “‘This is the world of Brahman, O king,” said he’ (Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 4.3.32). The phrase ‘that’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 8.3.2) indicates the going of all beings there (viz. to Brahman). That is, the term ‘world of Brahma’ (Brahma-loka),—stated to be in apposition with the word ‘that’ which denotes the ‘small one’, and explained as a karmadhāraya compound thus: ‘the world which is Brahman’,—is “a mark”, i.e. a convincing proof, that the small ether is the Highest Brahman.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Quoted by Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Bhāskara, Śrīkaṇṭha and Baladeva.

[2]:

Op. cit.

[3]:

Op. cit.

[4]:

See below Vedānta-kaustubha.