Chapter I, Section III, Adhikarana II

Adhikarana summary: The Bhuman is Brahman

In the last section the abode of heaven etc. was interpreted as referring to Brahman on account of the word ‘Self’ in the text The opponent now takes up for discussion another text, where the word ‘Self’ according to his view is used to denote Prana, the vital force, and not Brahman. See Chh. 7. 23 and 24. The following Sutra however says that here also it is Brahman and not Prana.

 

Brahma-Sutra 1.3.8: Sanskrit text and English translation.

भूमा संप्रसादादध्युपदेशात् ॥ ८ ॥

bhūmā saṃprasādādadhyupadeśāt || 8 ||

bhūmā—The Bhuman; saṃprasādāt-adhi—after of beyond the state of deep sleep, (here, the vital force); upadeśāt—because of the teaching.

8. The Bhuman (is Brahman) because it is taught after the state of deep sleep (i.e. after Prana or the vital force, which alone functions even in that state).

In the seventh chapter of the Chhandogya Upanishad, Sanatkumara teaches Narada several truths. He begins with ‘name’ and goes higher and higher, till he teaches the highest truth, which is Bhuman.

“The Bhuman (infinite) is bliss. . . . The Bhuman you should seek to understand. . . . Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else, that is the Bhuman” (Chh. 7. 28 and 7. 24. 1).

The question is, what does this Bhuman refer to. The opponent holds that it is the vital force. He argues as follows : After Sanatkumara finished teaching every truth from name up to the vital force, Narada asks him, “Is there anything higher than this?”—to which Sanatkumara answers, “Yes, there is,” and takes up the next higher truth. But after being taught about the vital force Narada does not ask whether there is any higher truth, and yet Sanatkumara gives this dissertation on the Bhuman—which shows that this Bhuman is not different from the vital force taught already. Not only that, he calls the knower of the vital force an Ativadin (one who makes a statement surpassing previous statements), thereby showing that the vital force is the highest truth, and in accordance with this he further elucidates the truth as Bhuman.

This Sutra refutes this argument and says that Bhuman is Brahman, for though the Sutra calls the knower of vital force an Ativadin, yet it says,

“But he indeed is an Ativadin who is such through the realization of the Truth” (Chh. 7.16.1),

which clearly shows that it refers to something higher than the vital force, knowing which one becomes truly an Ativadin. Thus it is clear that a new topic about Brahman which is the highest Truth is begun, though Narada does not ask whether there is any truth higher than the vital force. Sanatkumara, in accordance with

Narada’s desire to be an Ativadin through Truth, now leads him by a series of steps to the knowledge of the Bhuman, showing that this Bhuman is Brahman. Moreover, if the vital force, says the Sutra, were the Bhuman, then the Srut^; would not give any information about it— as it does in Chh. 7. 24. 1 cited above —beyond what it has already given in section 15.

 

Brahma-Sutra 1.3.9: Sanskrit text and English translation.

धर्मोपपत्तेश्च ॥ ९ ॥

dharmopapatteśca || 9 ||

dharma-upapatteḥ—Because the qualities are appropriate; ca—and.

9. And because the qualities (mentioned in the texts) are appropriate (only in the case of Brahman).

The qualities referred to are: Truth, resting on its owr greatness, non-duality, bliss, all-pervading-ness, immortality, etc., mentioned in the text under discussion, which hold good only in the case of Brahman and not of the vital force, which is but an effect and as such cannot possess any of these qualities. Moreover the chapter begins thus: “The knower of the Self goes beyond misery”, which shows that the Self or Brahman is the subject to be known. It is therefore delineated in the subsequent texts.