Brahma Sutras (Ramanuja)
by George Thibaut | 1904 | 275,953 words | ISBN-10: 8120801350 | ISBN-13: 9788120801356
The English translation of the Brahma Sutras (also, Vedanta Sutras) with commentary by Ramanuja (known as the Sri Bhasya). The Brahmasutra expounds the essential philosophy of the Upanishads which, primarily revolving around the knowledge of Brahman and Atman, represents the foundation of Vedanta. Ramanjua’s interpretation of these sutras from a V...
Sutra 3.4.47
47. But on account of the existence (of knowledge) in all, there is winding up with the householder.
As knowledge belongs to the members of all āśramas it belongs to the householder also, and for this reason the Upanishad winds up with the latter. This winding up therefore is meant to illustrate the duties (not of the householder only, but) of the members of all āśramas. Analogously in the text under discussion (Bṛ. Up. III, 5) the clause 'A Brāhmaṇa having risen above the desire for sons, the desire for wealth, and the desire for worlds, wanders about as a mendicant,' intimates duties belonging exclusively to the condition of the wandering beggar, and then the subsequent clause 'therefore let a Brāhmaṇa having done with learning,' etc., enjoins pāṇḍitya, bālya, and mauna (not as incumbent on the pārivrājaka only, but) as illustrating the duties of all āśramas.—This the next Sūtra explicitly declares.