Brahma Sutras (Shankaracharya)

by George Thibaut | 1890 | 203,611 words

English translation of the Brahma sutras (aka. Vedanta Sutras) with commentary by Shankaracharya (Shankara Bhashya): One of the three canonical texts of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. The Brahma sutra is the exposition of the philosophy of the Upanishads. It is an attempt to systematise the various strands of the Upanishads which form the ...

29. Or else (the relation of the two is to be conceived) in the manner stated above.

Or else the relation of the two has to be conceived in the manner suggested by Sūtra 25. For if the bondage of the soul is due to Nescience only, final release is possible. But if the soul is really and truly bound--whether the soul be considered as a certain condition or state of the highest Self as suggested in Sūtra 27, or as a part of the highest Self as suggested in Sūtra 28--its real bondage cannot be done away with, and thus the scriptural doctrine of final release becomes absurd.--Nor, finally, can it be said that Śruti equally teaches difference and non-difference. For non-difference only is what it aims at establishing; while, when engaged in setting forth something else, it merely refers to difference as something known from other sources of knowledge (viz. perception, &c.).--Hence the conclusion stands that the soul is not different from the highest Self, as explained in Sūtra 25.

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