Brahma-Sūtra 1.2.25

English of translation of Brahmasutra 1.2.25 by Roma Bose:

“Vaiśvānara (is the lord), on account of the distinctive attributes of the common term.”

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

‘Vaiśvānara’ is the Highest Self alone, because that the word ‘Vaiśvānara’, though a common term, denoting (both) fire and Brahman, is to be understood as implying Brahman here, follows from the fact that we know its “distinctive attributes” through the designation of its parts, such as the heaven as its head and so on.

Śrīnivāsa’s commentary (Vedānta-kaustubha)

Thus, it has been pointed out that the Lord is to be meditated on as the Soul of the movable and the immovable. Now, by pointing out that the Lord is to be meditated on, in the very same manner, as Vaiśvānara also, the author shows that the text: ‘“Who is our soul? What is Brahman”?’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 5.11.1) refers to the Lord.

In the Chāndogya, the following passage is found, beginning: ‘“Who is our soul? What is Brahman.”?’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 5.11.1), “‘You know now that Vaiśvānara Self, tell us about Him alone”’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 5.11.6), and continuing: ‘But he who meditates on the Vaiśvānara Self as of the measure of a span only, and as of an unlimited dimension,—he eats food in all the worlds, in all beings, in all selves. Verily, of this Vaiśvānara Self, the head, indeed, is the brightly shining (heaven), the eye the multiform (sun), the breath that which moves in various paths (i.e. the wind), the body the extended (space), the bladder, indeed, wealth (i.e. water), the feet the earth indeed, the breast, indeed, the sacrificial altar, the hairs the sacrificial grass, the heart the Gārhapatya fire, the mind the Anvahāryapaeana fire, the mouth the Āhavanīya fire’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 5.18.1-2). A doubt arises as to whether here Vaiśvānara is the gastric fire, or the elemental fire, or the presiding deity of fire, or the Highest Self. The prima facie view is as follows: The word ‘Vaiśvānara’ is a common term. Why? Because it is applied to the gastric fire, as in the passage: ‘This is the Vaiśvānara fire which is within this person, by means of which this food that is eaten is digested. Its noise is that which one bears on covering the ears. When one is on the point of departing one does not hear this sound’ (Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 5.9.1); because it is applied also to the elemental fire, as in the passage: ‘For the whole world, the gods made Agni Vaiśvānara a sign of the day’ (Ṛgveda-saṃhitā 10.88.12^[1]); because it is applied to the fire-god too, as in the passage: ‘May we be in the favour of Vaiśvānara, for verily, he is the king of the worlds, bliss, lustrous’ (Ṛgveda-saṃhitā 1.98.1^[2]); and because it is applied to the Highest Self, as in the passages: ‘He threw it in the self, indeed, in the heart, in Agni Vaiśvānara’ (Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa 3.1.8.7^[3]). ‘This Vaiśvānara arises as having all forms, as the vital-breath, as fire’ (Praśna 1.7).

With regard to it, we reply: Vaiśvānara is the Highest Person alone. Why? “On account of the distinctive attributes of the common word”, i.e. because there are distinctive attributes for taking the common term ‘Vaiśvānara’,—applied, equally, to the gastric fire, the elemental fire, the fire-god and the Highest Self,—as denoting specifically the Highest Self alone. The sense is that the distinctive attributes by reason of which the Highest Person alone may be taken as the primary meaning of the word ‘Vaiśvānara’, are present here, as we know them from the text: ‘Of this Vaiśvānara Self, the head indeed is the brightly shining (heaven)’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 5.18.2) and so on. Hence, the word ‘Vaiśvānara’, though commonly applicable to all (the four), here denotes the Highest Self (alone), on account of such distinctive attributes. The gastric fire and the rest cannot possibly have limbs, like the heaven, and the rest down to the earth,—since they are not the soul of all, and since in this section, the common term is qualified by the special attributes of the Lord, such as, ‘being the soul of all’ and the rest, mentioned in the introductory text: “Who is our soul? What is Brahman”?’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 5.11.1).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

P. 347, lines 7-8.

[2]:

P. 81, lines 3-4.

[3]:

P. 265, lines 3-4, (vol. 3). Correct quotation: ‘Tad... hṛdaye agnau vaiśvānare prāsyat’.