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 IV, Adhikarana VIII
Adhikarana summary: The arguments which refute the Sankhyas refute also others
Brahma-Sutra 1.4.28: Sanskrit text and English translation.
एतेन सर्वे व्याख्याता व्याख्याताः ॥ २८ ॥
etena sarve vyākhyātā vyākhyātāḥ || 28 ||
etena—By this; sarve—all; vyākhyātāḥ—are explained.
28. By this all (doctrines with reference to the origin of the world contrary to the Vedanta texts) are explained.
By this identity of the material and the efficient cause of the world all doctrines that speak of two separate causes for it are refuted. That is, not only the Sankhyan, but also the atomic and other theories are refuted, as they are not based on scriptural authority and contrndict many scriptural texts. The repetition of the verb in the aphorism only shows that the chapter ends here.
Those who hold the atomic theory, or who say that the First Cause is non-existence, or that it is Sunya (Void)—as the Nihilists say—cite respectively the following texts as authority.
“These seeds, almost infinitesimal” (Chh. 6. 12. 1);
“This was indeed non-existent at the beginning” (Chh. 3. 19. 1);
“Some learned men being deluded, speak of nature, and others of time, as the cause of everything” (Svet. 6. 1).
But the arguments put forward against the Sankhyas, viz . that contrary to the scriptures their First Cause is insentient, that the proposition that through the knowledge of the one everything is known, will not be true, etc. will apply here also, and so these views cannot be held to be authoritative and based on the scriptures. The Srutis quoted are explained thus:
The word ‘infinitesimal’ or ‘atomic’ refers to the Atman, which can be so-called as it is very fine. The non-existence spoken of is only a fine causal condition ol the world undeveloped into name and form as yet, and not absolute non-existence; and the fact of nature being the First Cause is mentioned as a Purvapaksha by the Sruti, which itself refutes it further on in the succeeding texts. So Brahman alone is the First Cause, and nothing else.