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 ...
III, 3, 60
60. But (vidyās) connected with wishes may, according to one's liking, be cumulated or not; on account of the absence of the former reason.
The above Sūtra supplies a counter-instance to the preceding Sūtra.--We have, on the other hand, vidyās connected with definite wishes; as e.g. Ch. Up. III, 15, 2, 'He who knows that the wind is the child of the regions never weeps for his sons;' Ch. Up. VII, 1, 5, 'He who meditates on name as Brahman, walks at will as far as name reaches.' In these vidyās which, like actions, effect their own special results by means of their 'unseen' Self, there is no reference to any intuition, and one therefore may, according to one's liking, either cumulate them or not cumulate them; 'on account of the absence of the former reason,' i.e. because there is not the reason for option which was stated in the preceding Sūtra.