Sūtra 3.3.20Śaṅkara · 3.3.20

Śaṅkaraon Brahma Sūtra 3.3.20

Advaita Vedānta

Sūtra

संबन्धादेवमन्यत्रापि

saṃbandhādevamanyatrāpi

Sūtra translation

Thus ill other cases also, on account of the con- nexion (of particulars with one and the same vidja).

We read in the Br/had-ara;/yaka (V, 5), ‘The true is Brahman/ and, further on, ‘Now what is the true, that is the Aditya, the person that dwells in yonder orb, and the person in the right eye.^ Having thus declared the different abodes of that true Jhahman with reference to the gods and with reference to the body, and having, in what follows, identified its body with the sacred syllables (bhu/^, &c.), the text teaches its two secret names (upaiiishad), ‘ Its secret name — is ahar ’ with reference to the gods ; and ‘ its secret name is aham’ with reference to the body. A doubt here arises whether these tw^o secret names are both to be applied to the deva-abode of Brahman as well as to its bodily abode, or only one name to each. Just The above Sutra maintains the piirvapaksha view. as certain particulars though recorded elsewhere are yet ; to be combined with the .S‘a;/^/ilya-vidya, so w'e have to proceed in other cases also, as e. g. the one under discus- sion, because the particulars mentioned are all connected with one vidya. The vidya of the True with its double reference to the Devas and to the body is one only, as we infer from the fact of its having one exordium only (• The true is Brahman’), and from the way in which the text interconnects Aditya and the person in the eye. Why then should an attribute belonging to one of the latter not belong to the other also ? For, to quote an analogous case, certain rules of life which are prcscriljcd for a teacher —as c. g. having a following of pupils— remain equally valid whether the teacher be in a village or in a wood. For these reasons both secret names equally belong to the Aditya as well as to the person within the eye. This view the. next Sutra refutes.