Essay name: Srikara Bhashya (commentary)

Author: C. Hayavadana Rao

The Srikara Bhashya, authored by Sripati Panditacharya in the 15th century, presents a comprehensive commentary on the Vedanta-Sutras of Badarayana (also known as the Brahmasutra). These pages represent the introduction portion of the publication by C. Hayavadana Rao.

Page 281 of: Srikara Bhashya (commentary)

Page:

281 (of 953)


External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)


Download the PDF file of the original publication


Warning! Page nr. 281 has not been proofread.

220
INTRODUCTION
prescribed throughout as a preliminary qualification for
upāsana. All this is of course foreign to Srikantha.
On the other hand, the deviation is sometimes very wide.
Thus in Sutra II. 1. 4, Srikantha says:-ataḥ satyagnānā-
nandarūpāt Brāhmaṇō asya (prapanchasya) vailakshanyam
siddham. Commenting on the same Sūtra, Srīpati taking the
opposite view, says athō Brahma pradhāna yöḥ navailaksha-
nyam ityāḥ. In some cases the illustrations used by Srikantha
in one Sūtra re-appear in Srīpati's commentary under another.
Thus the illustration of the gōvu and the mahisha in II. 1. 4
in Srikantha appear in II. 4. 18 in Srīpati. Commenting on
II. 1. 4, Navilakshaṇatvādasya tathēvancha sabdāt, Srīkantha
states that Paramātman being satyagnānānandarupa and
being the kāraṇasrishti, is also kūryarūpa. This is mutually
contradictory. Looking at karya-kāraṇa-bhāva, there seems
all the difference between kārya and kāraṇa as between gōvu
and mahisha. (That is, the cow cannot be buffalo any more
than karya can be kāraṇa.) Srīpati in II. 4. 18 Vaishyēttu
tadvadastadvādaḥ, states that the utma in accordance with
the nyāya kāraṇaguṇāḥ kārye parisamkrāmanti iti, etc.,
enters the jiva and giving himself the sarira made up of the
pancha bhūtas, meditates through the inanendriyas, and the
bhāva of bimbapratibimba and becomes himself the kartru.
The Advaita argument that holds that the jiva is Isvara and
that the jiva and the Isvara are abhēda from the aupachārika
point of view only, is accordingly held to be like the invented
argument which holds that the elephant is the horse and is
as such unacceptable to us (asamanjasa). Therefore bhēda
between 1īva and Isvara in Sripati's view has to be accepted,
as the opposite view is an obvious contradiction of several
Sruti and Smriti texts (pratyaksha sruti smriti virōdhāt).
Similarly, the example of the tatāka appearing in Srikantha
under Sutra III. 3. 29, Gaterarthavatvamubhayadhānyadhāti-
virōdhaḥ, re-appears in Srīpati under III. 3. 30, Upapanna-
sthallakshanarthopalabdhērlōkavachcha. But Srīpati, how-
ever, does not reverse the order of these sūtras as
Srikantha does nor does he use the example of the king
and the subject in commenting on III. 3. 29.

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