Brahma-Sūtra 1.3.42

English of translation of Brahmasutra 1.3.42 by Roma Bose:

“The ether (is brahman), on account of the designation (of it) as something different, and so on.”

Nimbārka’s commentary (Vedānta-pārijāta-saurabha):

In the passage: ‘The ether, verily, is the producer of name and form’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 8.14.1^[1]), the object denoted by the term ‘ether’ is the Highest Person. Why? “On account of the designation” of the Supreme Soul “as something different” from even the freed souls, He being the producer of all objects possessing names and forms implied by the term ‘name and form’,—as well as on account of the designation of Brahmanhood, immortality and the rest on its part.

Śrīnivāsa’s commentary (Vedānta-kaustubha)

Thus, by means of the aphorism: ‘On account of the text only, what is measured (is the Lord)’ (Brahma-sūtra 1.3.24), the text regarding the Person of the size of merely a thumb has been shown to be referring to Brahman, and this has been confirmed once more immediately after the end of the incidental sections. Now, with a view to designating the non-attachment and the omnipresence of the Supreme Self, it is being shown that the text about the ether, too, refers to Him.

In the Chāndogya, we read: ‘The ether, verily, is the producer of name and form. That within which they are is Brahman, that is immortal, that is the soul’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 8,14.1). Here a doubt arises, viz. whether by the term ‘ether’ the elemental ether is to he understood here, or the soul freed from the bondage of mundane existence, or the Supreme Soul. If it be said that the elemental ether is to be understood, since the term ‘ether’ is well-known to denote that alone,—(we reply:) no, on account of the term ‘soul’. What then should be understood? If it be suggested: the freed soul, Why? For the following reasons: First, the freed soul alone has been mentioned previously as the topic of discussion, in the passage: ‘Shaking off (evils) as a horse shakes off his hairs’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 8.13.1),—the phrase: ‘That within which they are’ means: That soul, freed from mundane existence, from which ‘they’, i.e. name and form ‘are different’ (antara), i.e. outside. Further, the discarding of the well-known name and form is possible on the part of the soul in its state of release, as declared by the passage: ‘Just as the flowing rivers, discarding name and form’ (Muṇḍaka-upaniṣad 3.2.8). And, finally, the term ‘ether’, too, is appropriate with regard to the freed soul, it being possessed of fully manifest knowledge. The phrase: ‘That is Brahman, that is immortal’ denotes the state of salvation.

(Author’s conclusion.)

We reply: The meaning of the term ‘ether’ here can fittingly be the Supreme Soul alone. Why? “On account of the designation (of it) as something different”, i.e. on account of the designation of the object denoted by the term ‘ether’,—which is untouched by name and form, as evident from the phrase: ‘That within which they are’; and is the producer of name and form, as evident from the phrase: ‘The producer of name and form’,—as different from the object which is devoid of the power of being a producer, since during its state of bondage, the soul, partaking of name and form as subject to karmas, is not itself capable of producing, i.e. revealing, name and form;—to do so being all the more impossible on its part during its state of release. That the activities in connection with (the creation and the rest) of the Universe, are impossible on its part, will be expressly stated later on.^[2] On the other hand, that the Supreme Soul, an adept in the creation of the entire Universe, is such a producer, is well-established by Scripture itself, thus: ‘“Having entered with this living-soul, let me evolve name and form”’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 6.3.2), ‘From him arose—^[3] this name, form and food’ (Muṇḍaka-upaniṣad 1.1.9) ‘The Wise One, who abides conceiving all forms, giving names, and declaring (them)’ (Taittirīya-āraṇyaka 3.12.7^[4]). The ‘ether’ is Brahman also on account of the designation, in the text, of the exclusive qualities of the Lord, such as, being eternally manifest, greatness, immortality and the rest, implied by the term “and so on” (in the sūtra). Nor has the freed soul been mentioned before as the topic of discussion, the Supreme Soul alone being the topic, as evident from the passage: ‘I attain the world of Brahman’ (Chāndogya-upaniṣad 8.13.1), and the term ‘ether’, too, being well-known to denote the Supreme Soul alone, it being all-pervasive and non-attached.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Quoted by Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Bhāskara, Śrīkaṇṭha and Baladeva.

[2]:

Vide Brahma-sūtra 4.4.17.

[3]:

Correct quotation: ‘Tasmād etat Brahma...’. Vide Muṇḍaka-upaniṣad 1.1.9. p. 10.

[4]:

P. 199.