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 III, Section III, Adhikarana II

Adhikarana summary: Particulars of identical Vidyas mentioned in different places or Sakhas are to be combined into one meditation

Brahma-Sutra 3.3.5: Sanskrit text and English translation.

उपसंहारोऽर्थाभेदाद्विधिशेषवत्समाने च ॥ ५ ॥

upasaṃhāro’rthābhedādvidhiśeṣavatsamāne ca || 5 ||

upasaṃhāraḥ—Combination; arthābhedāt—since there is no difference in the object of meditation; vidhiśeṣavat—like the subsidiary rites of a main sacrifice; samāne ca—and in the Upasanas of the same class.

5. And in the Upasanas of the same class (mentioned in different Sakhas) a combination (of all the particulars mentioned in all Sakhas is to be made), since there is no difference in the object of meditation, just as (a combination of) all subsidiary rites of a main sacrifice (mentioned in different Sakhas is made).

From what has been discussed in the previous Sutras it is clear that the Vidyas described in different Sakhas will have to be combined in the Upasana, since their object after all is one. The particulars mentioned in other Sakhas than one’s own are also efficacious, and as such one has to combine all these, even as one does with respect to subsidiary rites like Agninotra, connected with a main sacrifice, mentioned in several Sakhas.

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