Brahma Sutras (Shankara Bhashya)
by Swami Vireshwarananda | 1936 | 124,571 words | ISBN-10: 8175050063
This is the English translation of the Brahma-sutras including the commentary (Bhashya) of Shankara. The Brahma-sutra (or, Vedanta-sutra) is one of the three canonical texts of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy and represents an early exposition the Vedantic interpretation of the Upanishads. This edition has the original Sanskrit text, the r...
Chapter I, Section III, Adhikarana XII
Adhikarana summary: The Akasa which reveals names and forms is Brahman
Brahma-Sutra 1.3.41: Sanskrit text and English translation.
आकाशोऽर्थान्तरत्वादिव्यपदेशात् ॥ ४१॥
ākāśo'rthāntaratvādivyapadeśāt || 41 ||
ākāśaḥ—Akasa; arthāntaratvādi-vyapadeśāt—because it is declared to be something different etc.
41. Akasa (is Brahman) because it is declared to be something different etc. (from names and forms and yet their revealer).
“That which is called Akasa is the revealer of all names and forms. That within which these names and forms are, is Brahman, the immortal, the Self” (Chh. 8.14.1).
Here ‘Akasa’ is Brahman. Why ? Because names and forms are snid to be within this Akasa, which is therefore different from these. In this phenomenal world everything is conditioned by name and form, and Brahman alone is beyond them. Akasa is said to be the revealer of names and forms; and as the Inner Ruler of the whole world of names and forms it cannot be anything else but Brahman. Moreover, epithets like ‘Infinite’, ‘Immortal’, ‘Self’ also show that ‘Akasa’ here refers to Brahman.