Brahma Sutras (Shankaracharya)

by George Thibaut | 1890 | 203,611 words

English translation of the Brahma sutras (aka. Vedanta Sutras) with commentary by Shankaracharya (Shankara Bhashya): One of the three canonical texts of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. The Brahma sutra is the exposition of the philosophy of the Upanishads. It is an attempt to systematise the various strands of the Upanishads which form the ...

51. On account of the unseen principle being non-limitative.

While there are many souls, all-pervading like ether, and in equal proximity to all bodies from within as well as without, the so-called unseen principle (adṛṣṭa), which is of the nature of religious merit or demerit, is acquired through mind, speech, and body (i.e. thoughts, words, and actions).--Now, according to the Sāṅkhyas, that principle inheres not in the Self, but abides in the pradhāna and cannot, on account of the pradhāna being the same (for all souls), be the limitative cause of the enjoyment of pleasure and pain for each individual Self.--And according to the Kāṇādas also the unseen principle is due to the non-particular conjunction of the Selfs with the internal organs, and as thus there is no limitative reason for any particular adṛṣṭa belonging to any particular soul, the doctrine is open to the same objection.--Well, but there are at work in every particular Self resolutions, &c., such as, 'I wish to obtain that result,' 'I wish to avoid that other result,' 'I am striving for that purpose,' 'I wish to act in that way,' &c. &c., and these may, we assume, define the relation of ownership in which particular Selfs stand to particular adṛṣṭas.--This objection is negatived in the following Sūtra.

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