Brahma-Sūtra 3.3.18

English of translation of Brahmasutra 3.3.18 by Roma Bose:

“On account of the telling of a thing to be done, (already established by Smṛti and custom,) (that is not enjoined by the text here, but) something new, (i.e. the meditation on water as the dress of the vital-breath.”

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

In the text: “He should rinse the mouth with water when about to eat, and should rinse the mouth with water when he has eaten. Thus indeed he makes the breath non-naked” (Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 14.9.2, 15 ^[1]), the meditation on water as forming the dress of the vital-breath, not mentioned before, is enjoined, there being only a re-mention here, on the other hand, of the rinsing of the mouth with water, already established by Smṛti and custom. ^[2]

Śrīnivāsa’s commentary (Vedānta-kaustubha)

Now a particular subsidiary part of the above-mentioned meditation on the vital-breath is being considered. In the Vājasaneyaka it is said that the vital-breath asked speech and the rest: ‘What is my food, what is my dress?” (Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 6.1.14; Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 14.9.2, 14^[3]), They replied: ‘“Whatever there is here, as far as dogs, worms, crawling and flying insects,—that is your food; water is your dress”’ (Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 6.1.14; Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 14.9.2, 14). After that we read: “Those versed in the Veda who know this rinse the mouth with water when they are about to eat, and rinse the mouth with water when they have eaten. So indeed they think that they are making the breath non-naked” (Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 6.1.14), “Hence he who knows this should rinse the mouth with water when about to eat and should rinse the mouth with water when he has eaten. Thus indeed he makes the breath non-naked” (Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 14.9.2, 15).

In the very same manner, we read the following in the Chāndogya as well; “He said: ‘What will be my dress?’ ‘Water,’ they said. Hence, verily, those who are about to eat clothe it before and after with water. It is accustomed to receive a dress; it becomes non-naked” (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 5.2.2).

Here the doubt is as to whether here the rinsing of the mouth is enjoined or the meditation on water as forming the dress of the vital-breath, while there is simply a re-mention of the rinsing of the mouth. If it be suggested: As in the text: “So indeed he makes the breath non-naked” (Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 14.9.2, 15), there is no mention of an injunctive form referring to the meditation on water as forming the dress of the vital-breath, and as in this text: “He should rinse the mouth with water when about to eat” (Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 14.9.2, 15), there is the mention of an injunctive form, it is the rinsing of the mouth that is enjoined here, and water is designated as forming the dress of the vital-breath for glorifying the rinsing of the mouth.—

We reply: It is the meditation on water as forming the dress of the vital-breath—which is “something new”, i.e. is something not mentioned before,—that is alone enjoined here. For this very reason there is the mention of clothing only^[4] in the Chāndogya: ‘They clothe it with water” (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 5.2.2). From the circumstance also of its being found together with the meditation on food as far as dogs and so on, (enjoined) in the text: “As far as dogs” (Bṛhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 6.1.14; Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 14.9.2, 14), it is known that the meditation on (water) as forming the dress (of the vital-breath) alone is what is enjoined here, but the rinsing of the mouth with water is not what is enjoined.^[5] Why? “On account of the telling of a thing to be done,” i.e. because of the telling, i.e. mention, of a thing to be done. i.e. of a duty to be performed daily, already established by Smṛti and custom, and simply re-men-tioned in the meditation on the vital-breath, as well for the sake of laying down a clothing of the vital-breath. Hence it is established that the meditation on the rinsing-water as forming the dress of the vital-breath is enjoined here as a subsidiary part of the meditation on the vital-breath, while there is simply a re-mention of the act of rinsing the mouth with water.

Here ends the section entitled “The telling of a thing to be done” (5).

Comparative views of Baladeva:

This is sūtra 19 in his commentary. He also takes this sūtra as forming an adhikaraṇa by itself, though concerned with an entirely different topic, viz. the designation of the Lord as Father. He interprets the word “apūrva” in the sūtra as: similar (“a”) to what precedes (“pūrva”). Hence the sūtra: “(The attributes of fatherhood and the like), similar to the preceding ones (viz. bliss, and so on) (are to be comprised in all meditations on Brahman), on account of the statement of the effect, (i.e. the fruit, i.e. because such meditations also lead to salvation)”.^[6]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

P. 1103, line 7. Quoted by Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Bhāskara and Śrīkaṇṭha.

[2]:

I.e, the ordinary practice of rinsing the mouth with water before and after meals is not enjoined by Scripture here, since it is already enjoined by Smṛti and custom and Scripture does not enjoin what has already been enjoined. Hence the text simply re-mentions this ordinary custom, but does not enjoin it, What it enjoins here is something new, viz. the meditation on water as the dress of the vital-breath.

[3]:

P. 1103, line 3.

[4]:

And no mention of the rinsing of the mouth with water.

[5]:

I.e. the preceding passage: “Whatever there is here, as far as dogs.., that is your food”, does not enjoin the use of the food of all kinds,—since that would be contrary to Scripture and impossible,—but merely enjoins the meditation on all food as the food of the vital-breath. Therefore, we must conclude that the text: “Water is your dress” also, which forms the immediate continuation of the above passage, does not enjoin the act of rinsing the mouth with water, but only the meditation on water as forming the dress of the vital-breath.

[6]:

Govinda-bhāṣya 3.3.19, pp. 143-144, Chap. 3.