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. Not also on account of its resembling (the mānasa cup) (can the fires constitute parts of an action); for it is observed (on the ground of Śruti, &c., that they are independent); as in the case of death; for the world does not become (a fire) (because it resembles a fire in some points).

Against the allegation made by the pūrvapakṣin that the present case is analogous to that of the mānasa cup, we remark that the fire-altars made of mind and so on cannot be assumed to supplement a sacrificial action although they may resemble the mānasa cup, since on the ground of direct enunciation &c. they are seen to subserve the purpose of man only (not the purpose of some sacrificial action). Anything indeed may resemble anything in some point or other; but in spite of that there remains the individual dissimilarity of each thing from all other things. The case is analogous to that of death. In the passages, 'The man in that orb is death indeed' (Śat. Brā. X, 5, 2, 3), and 'Agni indeed is death' (Taitt. Saṃh. V, i, 10, 3), the term 'death' is applied equally to Agni and the man in the sun; all the same the two are by no means absolutely equal. And if the text says in another place, 'This world is a fire indeed, O Gotama; the sun is its fuel,' &c. (Ch. Up. V, 4, i), it does not follow from the similarity of fuel and so on that the world really is a fire. Thus also in our case.

Like what you read? Consider supporting this website: