Brahma-Sūtra 1.1.25

English of translation of Brahmasutra 1.1.25 by Roma Bose:

“(Brahman is denoted by the word) light, on account of the mention of feet.”

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

“The light”, mentioned in the passage: ‘The light (higher) than the heaven’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 3.13.7^[1]) is Brahman alone, “on account of the mention of feet”, in the passage: ‘“One foot of him are all the elements”’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 3.12.6^[2]).

Śrīnivāsa’s commentary (Vedānta-kaustubha)

In this manner, it has been pointed out that the term. ‘ether’, as well as the term ‘vital-breath’ refer to Brahman, all-pervading, untouched by any fault and the cause of all life. Now, the author is showing that the term ‘light’ also refers to Brahman.

In the Chāndogya, it is recorded: ‘Now, the light which shines higher than this heaven, on the backs of all, on the backs of everything, in the highest worlds than which there are no higher,—that, verily, is the same light which is within this person’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 3.13.7). Here, a doubt arises, viz. whether the term ‘light’ denotes the well-known light of the sun and so on, or the Highest Self. What is reasonable here? The prima facie view is as follows: It denotes the light of the sun and the rest. Why? Because that is well-known to be a remover of darkness, because Scripture mentions a limit in the passage: ‘The light which shines higher than this heaven’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 3.13.7), because no limit is possible on the part of Brahman, because Scripture speaks of a minor fruit in the passage: ‘He who knows this becomes agreeable to the eyes, and renowned’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 3.13.8), and, finally, because from the passage: ‘That, verily, is the same light, which is within this person’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 3.13.7), its identity with the fire within the belly is known.

On this suggestion, we reply: Here the object denoted by the term “light” is the Supreme Brahman alone, possessed of unsurpassed splendour. Why? “On account of the mention of feet.” Thus, in the text, which precedes the text about the ‘light’, viz. ‘So much is His greatness, and the Person is higher than this. One foot of him are all beings, three feet of him, the immortal in the heaven’ (Ṛg-V. 10.10.3; Chāndogya-upaniṣad 3.12.6), Brahman is mentioned as having four feet. Thus, all beings constitute His one foot. Having all beings as one foot is possible on the part of the Supreme Brahman alone, and never on the part of any one else. Nor is any contradiction involved in the declaration of His having the heaven as His limit, because, as the word ‘higher’ in the passage: ‘What is higher than this’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 3.13.7) denotes superiority, it is not meant to denote non-comprehensiveness; and because from the passage: ‘That the gods worship as the Light of lights, as Life’ (Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 4.4.16) the term ‘light’ is known to be referring to Brahman. Nor is any contradiction involved in the declaration of a minor fruit, because Brahman is the giver of fruits in accordance with the fitness of persons. As it is declared in the ‘Mystery of Fire’^[3] of the Vājasaneyins: ‘As one worships him, so he becomes’ (Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 10.5.2.10^[4]), and by the Lord Himself, in the passage:—‘“Whosoever, in whatever way, resorts to me, him, in that same way, do I favour’” (Bhagavad-gītā 4.11). And, the purpose of the meditation on the identity (of the Lord) with the fire within, the belly is to be known from the text: ‘“I, having become the Vaiśvānara^[5], abide within the bodies of living beings, and united with the prāṇa and the apāna,^[6] I digest the four kinds of food”’ (Gītā 15.14).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

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

[2]:

Quoted by Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Śrīkaṇṭha and Baladeva.

[3]:

Agni-rahasya is the title of the tenth book of the Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa.

[4]:

P. 725, line 13. Cf. a very similar passage in Mudgala-upaniṣad 3, p. 384, lines 8-9.

[5]:

That is, the fire of digestion.

[6]:

The prāṇa is one of the five modes of the chief vital-breath, and apāna is another. The first goes upwards the nose, the second goes downwards through the anus. Vide Vedānta-ratnamañjūṣā.