Brahma-Sūtra 3.3.50 (correct conclusion, end)

English of translation of Brahmasutra 3.3.50 by Roma Bose:

“And on account of what is subsequent, the being of this kind of the word (is established), there is connection with (action), on the other hand, on account of majority.”

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

On account also of the immediately following (section), viz.: “This world, verily, is piled up by the fire” (Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 10.5.4, 1^[1]), this text, referring to the fires piled up by the mind and so on, is of such a kind. “On account of the majority,” i.e. numerosity, of the details of (actual) fire which are to he accepted in the fires piled up by the mind and so on, there is the “connection” (of these mental fires) in the very vicinity of a fire built up by action.

Śrīnivāsa’s commentary (Vedānta-kaustubha)

“On account of what is subsequent” to the section concerned with the fires piled up by the mind and so on, viz. the section concerned with world which is filled, beginning: “This world, verily, is piled up by the fire (Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 10.5.4, 1), and on account of the preceding section,—implied by the term “and” (in the sūtra)—, beginning: “This orb that shines” (Śatapatha-brāhmaṇa 10.5.2, 1), the “text”, i.e. the section coming between them, is “of that kind”, i.e. concerned with an injunction about meditation. That is, on account of its association with a preceding and a subsequent sections which have meditation for their primary topic, here too there is the primacy of meditation,—that is what it comes to.

To this objection, viz. If in this section, there be the primacy of meditation, then what is the sense in beginning with action?—(the author) replies: “On account of majority”. That is, “on account of the majority” or numerosity of the details of the fire built up by action to be accomplished (mentally) in the case of the fires which are the subsidiary parts of meditation, there is the “connection”, i.e. setting forth, of the fires, the subsidiary parts of meditation, after the fires which are subsidiary parts of action. Hence it is established that the fires piled up by the mind and the rest are subsidiary parts of a sacrifice consisting in meditation.

Here ends the section entitled “The majority of indicatory marks” (20).

Comparative views of Baladeva:

This is sūtra 54 in his commentary. He takes it as forming an adhikaraṇa by itself concerned with an entirely different topic, viz. the grace of the Lord. The prima facie view is that it cannot be said that the direct vision of the Lord alone, attainable through devotion^[2], in the cause of salvation, for a text in the Muṇḍaka (Muṇḍaka-upaniṣad 3.2.3^[3]) shows that the vision of the Lord depends on the grace of the Lord. The answer is: “On account of what follows (i.e. the immediately following text^[4]), the being of that kind of the word (is established), (there is) the mention (of grace in the passage), on the other hand, on account of preponderance (i.e. because the grace of the Lord is the most predominating factor in attaining salvation)”. That is, the Muṇḍaka-text does imply that devotion is the cause of a direct vision of the Lord, and the latter a cause of emancipation, for the-grace or choice by the Lord is not arbitrary, but is determined by the devotion of men.^[5]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Correct quotation “Agniś Cita”, meaning “piled up fire”, and not “Agni-Cita”.

[2]:

Vide Govinda-bhāṣya 3.3.49 above.

[3]:

“Nāyamātmā pravacanena labhyaḥ”, etc.

[4]:

“Nāyamātmā vala-hīnena labhyaḥ”, etc.

[5]:

Govinda-bhāṣya 3.3.54, pp. 214ff., Chap. 3.