Brahma-Sūtra 3.3.23

English of translation of Brahmasutra 3.3.23 by Roma Bose:

“(The attributes like) holding together and pervading the heaven too (are not to be inserted in all vidyās) and for this reason.”

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

Owing to the very same difference of places,^[1] there is no insertion, in other vidyās, of the attributes like “holding together, pervading the heaven” and so on, laid down in the manual of the Taittirīyas^[2] thus: “The powers of which Brahman is the oldest, were held together. Brahman stretched out the heaven, the oldest, in the beginning” (Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa 2.4.7, 10^[3]).

Śrīnivāsa’s commentary (Vedānta-kaustubha)

Now (the author) is extending the above-mentioned maxim to other cases.

In the manual of the Taittirīyas, i.e. in the supplementary writings of the Rāṇāyanīyas, a mass of attributes belonging to Brahman, such as, holding the powers together, pervading the heaven and so on, is recorded in the passage: “The powers of which Brahman is the oldest, were held together. Brahman stretched out the heaven, the oldest, in the beginning. Brahman was horn first among all beings.^[4] Who then is fit to rival that Brahman?” (Taittirīya-brāhmaṇa 2.4.7, 10). The sense is: ‘energies’—here the word ‘vīryyāḥ [vīryāḥ]’ (in the masculine gender) means ‘vīryyāṇi [vīryāṇi]’ (in the neuter gender)—have Brahman as their ‘oldest’, i.e. as their chief,—that means: they are the attributes of Brahman. (They are) ‘held together’, i.e. supported, by the substratum of the attributes, (viz. Brahman),—hereby (Brahman’s attribute of) holding the powers together is designated. That chiefest Brahman stretched out the heaven,—hereby (Brahman’s attribute of) pervading the heaven is designated.

Here the doubt is as to whether these attributes of Brahman are to be inserted in the Śāṇḍilya-vidyā and the rest,—that are meditations on Brahman—enjoined in their (i.e. Rāṇāyanīyas’s) Upaniṣads, or not to be inserted, a different kind of meditation (on Brahman) as possessed of these attributes being enjoined here. On the suggestion that they are to be inserted,

We reply: Just as the two names are not combined, so the group of attributes like “holding together and pervading the heaven” and so on too is not to be combined. Why? “For this reason,” i.e. on account of the very same difference, i.e. on account of the difference of abodes. In the Śāṇḍilya-vidyās and the rest, Brahman is declared to have a small abode in the texts: “This soul of mine within the heart” (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 3.14.3,4). Here, there (is no mention of the) attribute of occupying a place that is not small, resulting from (His) ‘pervading the heaven’, as well as of other attributes of occupying a place that is not small, such as, ‘holding together’ and the rest, resulting from (their) association with that. Hence it is established that there is a separate meditation (on Brahman) as qualified by the attributes of holding the powers together, pervading the heaven and so on.

Here ends the section entitled “Holding together” (8).

Comparative views of Baladeva:

This is sūtra 24 in his commentary. He continues the topic that the God-possessed souls are not to be meditated on as possessed of the attributes of the Lord. Hence the sūtra: “And (the attributes like) holding together and pervading the heaven too (are not to be combined in the meditations on the God-possessed souls) also for this reason (i.e. because they are not equal to the Lord)”.^[5]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Vide Brahma-sūtra 3.3.21.

[2]:

A school of the Yajur-veda.

[3]:

Pp. 252-253. Quoted by Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Bhāskara, Śrīkaṇṭha Cf. Atharvaveda-saṃhitā 19.22.21, 30—same, only “Brahma-jyeṣṭhā sambhṛtā vīryyāṇī [vīryāṇī]”,—slightly different.

[4]:

The text reads: “Ṛtasya Brahma prathamota jajñe”.

[5]:

Govinda-bhāṣya 3.3.24, pp. 148-149, Chap. 3.