Brahma Sutras (Nimbarka commentary)
by Roma Bose | 1940 | 290,526 words
English translation of the Brahma-sutra 1.2.32, including the commentary of Nimbarka and sub-commentary of Srinivasa known as Vedanta-parijata-saurabha and Vedanta-kaustubha resepctively. Also included are the comparative views of important philosophies, viz., from Shankara, Ramanuja, Shrikantha, Bhaskara and Baladeva.
Brahma-Sūtra 1.2.32
English of translation of Brahmasutra 1.2.32 by Roma Bose:
“On account of identification, so Jaimini thinks, for thus (scripture) shows.”
Nimbārka’s commentary (Vedānta-pārijāta-saurabha):
The imagination of their[1] breast and the rest as the sacrificial altar and so on is for the purpose of effecting “an identification” of Agni-hotra with the offering to the vital-breaths, which is a subsidiary element of the Vaiśvānara-vidyā, practised by a worshipper of Vaiśvānara,—“so” the teacher “Jaimini” thinks. That very thing the scriptural text: ‘Now, he who offers the Agni-hotra, knowing this thus’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 5.24.2[2]), ‘shows’.
Śrīnivāsa’s commentary (Vedānta-kaustubha)
If it be asked: If the Highest Self, having thus the three worlds as His body, be denoted by the term ‘Vaiśvānara’, then, what is the purpose of imagining the breast and the rest of the worshipper as the sacrificial altar and so on thus: ‘The breast is the sacrificial altar, the hairs the sacrificial grass, the heart the Gārhapatya fire, the mind the Anvāhāryapacana fire’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 5.18.2)?—the author replies here:
The imagining of the worshippers as the sacrificial altar and the rest is for the purpose of effecting an “identification” of Agni-hotra with the offering to the vital-breath, which is a subsidiary element of the Vaiśvānara-vidyā, practised by the worshippers of Vaiśvānara,—“so” the teacher “Jaimini” thinks. “For thus”, i.e. this very identification of the offering to the vital-breath and the Agni-hotra, “Scripture shows” in the following passage: ‘Now, he who offers the Agni-hotra knowing this thus, his offering is made to all the worlds, to all beings, to all selves’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 5.24.2).
Comparative views of Baladeva:
The interpretation of the word ‘sampatteḥ’ different, viz. ‘on account of mysterious power or lordliness’. Hence the sūtra: ‘(The Lord is said to be of the measure of a span) on account of (His) mysterious power, so Jaimini (thinks), for thus Scripture shows (viz. that the Lord is possessed of such powers)’.[3]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
I.e. of those who meditate on Vaiśvānara.