Sūtra 1.1.17

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of Sūtra 1.1.17:

भेद-व्यपदेशाच् च

bheda-vyapadeśāc ca

bheda–difference; vyapadeśāt–because of the statement; ca–also.

“[The Personality of Brahman and the individual conscious living entity are] different, because the Vedic literature teaches this fact.” (17)

Sūtra pagination:
Adhyāya 1:
  The subject matter of all Vedic literatures is Brahman;
Pāda 1:
  Words which, taken by themselves, would not necessarily refer to Brahman, but in the Vedic context certainly refer to Brahman.;
Adhikaraṇa 6:
  The Supreme Brahman is Full of Bliss.

Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa’s commentary (Govinda-bhāṣya)

The Taittirīya Upaniṣad [7.1] explains:

रसो वै सः रसं ह्य् एवायं लब्ध्वानन्दी भवति.

raso vai saḥ rasaṃ hy evāyaṃ labdhvānandī bhavati.

“When one understands the Personality of Godhead, the reservoir of pleasure Kṛṣṇa, he actually becomes transcendentally blissful.”

This passage clearly shows the difference between the liberated individual conscious living entity and the Personality of Brahman, whom the Vedic mantras describe as ānandamaya, and who is the transcendental nectar attained by the individual conscious living entity by following the Vedic system of self-realization.

This difference is also described in the following statement of Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad [4.4.6]:

ब्रह्मैव सन् ब्रह्माप्नोति

brahmaiva san brahmāpnoti

“After becoming Brahman, the individual conscious living entity attains Brahman.”

This statement does not mean that after liberation the individual conscious living entity becomes non-different from the Supreme Brahman, but rather the liberated conscious living entity becomes similar to Brahman in quality and consciousness, and in this condition meets Brahman and attains His association.

This is confirmed by the following statement of Māṇḍukya Upaniṣad [3.1.31]:

निरञ्जनः परमं साम्यम् उपैति

nirañjanaḥ paramaṃ sāmyam upaiti

“This liberated conscious living entity becomes like the Personality of Brahman.”

Also, in the Bhagavad-gītā [14.2], the Personality of Brahman declares:

इदं ज्ञानम् उपाश्रित्य मम साधर्म्यम् आगताः

idaṃ jñānam upāśritya mama sādharmyam āgatāḥ

“By becoming fixed in this knowledge, one can attain to the transcendental nature, which is like My own nature.”

In this way the Vedic literatures teach us that the liberated conscious living entities become qualitatively similar the Personality of Brahman. However they do not state that the living entities become equal to Brahman in every way, especially quantitatively. This concept is the foundation of the philosophy of simultaneous oneness and difference between the jiva and Brahman, known as acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. The living entities are qualitatively similar to, and quantitatively different from Brahman.

The principle of material creation is the sum total of the three modes of material nature—goodness, passion and ignorance—technically called the pradhāna. The Vedic hymns sarvaṃ hy etad brahma [Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad 1.1.2], tasmād etad brahma nāma-rūpam annaṃ ca jāyate [Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.2.10], and, in the Bhagavad-gītā [14.3], mama yonir mahad brahma indicate that everything in the material world is a manifestation of Brahman; and although the effects are manifested in combinations and permutations of three different modes, they are nondifferent from the cause. Therefore those who, according to atheistic Sāṅkhya philosophy, accept prakṛti, the manifested material nature, as the original cause of the cosmic manifestation are incorrect in their conclusion. The material nature has no separate existence without the Lord.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam [3.26.10] states,

श्री-भगवान् उवाच
यत् तत् त्रि-गुणम् अव्यक्तं
नित्यं सद्-असद्-आत्मकम्
प्रधानं प्रकृतिं प्राहुर्
अविशेषं विशेषवत्

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
yat tat tri-guṇam avyaktaṃ
nityaṃ sad-asad-ātmakam
pradhānaṃ prakṛtiṃ prāhur
aviśeṣaṃ viśeṣavat

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: “The unmanifested eternal combination of the three modes is called pradhāna, and it is the cause of the manifest state. It is called prakṛti when in the manifested stage of existence.”

Pradhāna is the subtle, undifferentiated sum total of all material elements. Although the elements are undifferentiated, the potential to manifest the total material elements is contained in pradhāna. When the total material elements are manifested by the interaction of the three modes of material nature with material time, the manifestation is called prakṛti. Impersonalists say that Brahman is without variegatedness and differentiation. Some philosophers say that pradhāna is the Brahman stage of matter, but actually the Brahman stage is different from pradhāna. Pradhāna is distinct from Brahman because in Brahman there is no existence of the material modes of nature.

Pradhāna is the sum total of all material elements before the creation, when the reaction of the total elements with time does not take place, and the interactions of cause and effect are potential, or not yet manifested (avyakta). Pradhāna is separate from the time element because the time element contains actions and reactions, creation and annihilation. Nor is it the jīva, or marginal potency of materially designated, conditioned living entities, because the designations of the living entities are not eternal. One adjective used in this connection is nitya, which indicates eternality; the principle of the material creation is eternal, but the manifestation is temporary because it is controlled by the Supreme Lord in His form of time. Therefore the pradhāna is a potential state of material nature immediately previous to its manifestation.

At this point someone may raise the following objection: “Is not the pradhāna feature of the mode of material goodness [sattva-guṇa] the actual origin of the ānandamaya person?” Śrīla Vyāsadeva answers this objection in the following sūtra.