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 ...

36. (The same thing follows) from the express denial of other (existences).

Having thus refuted the arguments of the pūrvapakṣin, the Sūtrakāra in conclusion strengthens his view by a further reason. A great number of Vedic passages--which, considering the context in which they stand, cannot be explained otherwise--distinctly deny that there exists anything apart from Brahman; 'He indeed is below; I am below; the Self is below' (Ch. Up. VII, 25, 1; 2); 'Whosoever looks for anything elsewhere than in the Self was abandoned by everything' (Bṛ. Up. II, 4, 6); 'Brahman alone is all this' (Mu. Up. II, 2, 11); 'The Self is all this' (Ch. Up. VII, 25, 2): 'In it there is no diversity' (Bṛ. Up. IV, 4, 19); 'He to whom there is nothing superior, from whom there is nothing different' (Śvet. Up. III, 9); 'This is the Brahman without cause and without effect, without anything inside or outside' (Bṛ. Up. II, 5, 19).--And that there is no other Self within the highest Self, follows from that scriptural passage which teaches Brahman to be within everything (Bṛ. Up. II, 5, 19).

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