Adhyaya 1 – Pada 1 - AdhikaraNa 2
The Origin of Everything
SUtra 2
janmAdy asya yataH
janma - birth; Adi - beginning with; asya - of that; yataH - from whom.
Brahman is He from whom everything emanates.*
Purport by shrIla Baladeva VidyAbhUShaNa
The word janmAdi is a tad-guNa-samvij~nAna-bahuvrIhi-samAsa, and it should interpreted to mean "creation, maintenance, and destruction." The word asya means "of this material universe with fourteen planetary systems, which is inhabitated by various creatures from the demigod BrahmA down to the lowest unmoving blade of grass, who all enjoy and suffer the results of their various fruitive actions (karma), and who cannot understand the astonishing structure of the universe where they live." The word yataH means "from whom", and it refers to the Supreme Brahman who manifested the universe from His inconceivable potency. This is the Brahman about whom one should inquire.
The words bhUma and AtmA both mean "all pervading". These words refer primarily to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This will be elaborately explained in the BhUmAdhikaraNa (1.3.7) and VAkyAnvayAdhikaraNa (1.4.19). The word "Brahman" in particular means "He who possesses boundless exalted qualitites." Brahman, then, refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and this is clearly confirmed in the following words of shruti-shAstra:
atha kasmAd ucyate brahmeti bR^ihanto by asmin guNAH
"From whom has this universe become manifest? From Brahman, who possesses an abundance of exalted transcendental qualities."
Brahman primarily refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and only secondarily to the individual spirit souls, who manifest in small degree the spiritual qualitites of the Supreme Lord. In this way the individual spirit souls may be called Brahman, just as the royal title may be given not only to the king, but also to his associates and subordinates. Therefore, the individual spirit souls, who are all suffering the three-fold miseries of material life, should, in order to attain ultimate liberation, inquire about the Supreme Brahman, who is very merciful towards whose who take shelter of Him. For these reasons it should be understood that the Supreme Brahman, the Personality of Godhead is the object of inquiry in this VedAnta-sUtra. This is not an imaginary description of Brahman.as qualities. This is the truth about Brahman.
The word jij~nAsA means "the desire to know." Knowledge is of two kinds: 1. ParokSha (knowledge gathered from sources other than the senses e.g. logic, knowledge obtained from authority, etc.) and 2. AparokSha (knowledge gathered by the senses). An example of these two kinds of knowledge may be seen in the following quotation from the shruti-shAstra:
vij~nAya praj~nAM kurvIta
"After learning about the Supreme Personality of Godhead one should become able to directly see Him in the trance of meditation."
ParokSha knowledge helps bring us closer to the Supreme Brahman, and aparokSha knowledge manifests the Supreme Lord before us.
If one understands his real identity as spirit soul, that is certainly very helpful in understanding Brahman, but that does not mean that the individual soul is the same as Brahman. The individual spirit soul is always different from Brahman, and even after liberation He remains eternally different from the Supreme Brahman. The difference between the individual soul and Brahman is described in sUtras 1.1.16, 1.1.17, 1.3.5, 1.3.21, and 1.3.41.
The Vedic literature gives the following guidelines for the interpretation of obscure passages:
upakramopasaMhArAv
abhyAso .apUrvata-phalam
artha-vAdopapattI ca
li~NgaM tAtparya-nirNaye
"The upakrama (beginning), upasaMhAra (ending), abhyAsa (what is repeated again and again), apUrvatA (what is unique and novel), phalam (the general purpose of the book), artha-vAda (the author.as statement of his own intention), and upapatti (appropriateness) are the factors to consider in interpretation of obscure passages."
If we apply these criteria to the shruti-shAstra, we will clearly see that the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the individual spirit soul are described here as two distinct entities.
Let us analyze the following passage from shvetAshvatara UpaniShad (4.6-7) in the light of these six criteria.
dvA suparNA sayujA sakhAyA
samAnaM vR^ikShaM parishaShvajAte
tayor anyaH pippalaM svAdv atty
anashnann anyo .abhicakAshIti
"The individual spirit-soul and the Supersoul, Personality of Godhead, are like two friendly birds sitting on the same tree. One of the birds (the individual atomic soul) is eating the fruit of the tree (the sense-gratification afforded to the material body), and the other bird (the Supersoul) is not trying to eat these fruits, but is simply watching His friend.
samAne vR^ikShe puruSho nimagno
.anIshAya shocati muhyamAnaH
juShTaM yadA pashyati anyam Isham
asya mahimAnam iti vIta-shokaH
"Although the two birds are on the same tree, the eating bird is fully engrossed with anxiety and moroseness as the enjoyer of the fruits of the tree. But if in some way or other he turns his face to his friend who is the Lord and knows His glories, at once the suffering bird becomes free from all anxieties."
In this passage the upakrama (beginning) is dvA suparNA (two birds); the upasaMhAra (ending) is anyam Isham (the other person, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead); the abhyAsa (repeated feature) is the word anya (the other person), as in the phrases tayor anyo .ashnan (the other person does not eat) and anyam Isham ( He sees the other person, who is the Supreme Lord); the apUrvatA (unique feature) is the difference between the Supreme Lord and the individual spirit soul, which could never have been understood without the revelation of the Vedic scripture; the phalam (general purpose of the passage) is vIta-shokaH (the individual spirit soul becomes free from suffering by seeing the Lord); the artha-vAda (the author.as statement of his own intention) is mahimAnam eti (one who understands the Supeme Lord becomes glorious) and the upapatti (appropriateness) is anyo .anashan (the other person, the Supreme Lord, does not eat the fruits of material happiness and distress).
By analyzing this passage and other passages from Vedic literatures, one may clearly understand the difference between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the individual spirit soul.
At this point someone may raise the following objection:
Is it not true that when a scripture teaches something that had not been known to its readers, then it is useful, and if when a scripture simply repeats what its readers already know, it simply wastes time uselessly? People in general think they are different from the Supreme Brahman, and therefore if the scripture were to teach them something new it would have to be that the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the indivdual spirit souls are completely identical. For this reason it should be understood that the individual spirit souls are identical with Brahman.
To this objection I reply: This view is not supported by the words of the Vedic scriptures. For example the shvetAshvatara
UpaniShad (1.6) states:
pR^ithag-AtmAnaM preritaM ca matvA
juShTas tatas tenAmR^itatvam eti
"When one understands that the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the individual spirit souls are eternally distinct entities, then he may become qualified for liberation, and live eternally in the spiritual world."
The impersonalist conception of the identity of the individual and the Supreme is a preposterous phantasmagoria, like the horn of a rabbit. It has no reference to reality, and it is completely rejected by the people in general. They do not accept it. Those few texts of the UpaniShads that apparently teach the impersonalist doctrine, are interpreted in a personalist way by the author, VyAsadeva himself. This will be described later on in Sutra 1.1.30.
Revelation of the Vedic Scriptures
Adhyaya 1 – Pada 1 - AdhikaraNa 3
The Supreme Personality of Godhead May be Understood by the Revelation of the Vedic Scriptures
1. ViShaya (Statement): The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the creator, maintainer and destroyer of the material universes. Because He is inconceivable to the tiny brains of the conditioned souls He must be understood by the revelation of VedAnta philosophy. This is confirmed by the following statements of the UpaniShads:
sac-cid-Ananda-rUpAya
kR^iShNAyAkliShTa-kAriNe
namo vedAnta-vedyAya
gurave buddhi-sAkShiNe
OM namaH. I offer my respectful obeisances to shrI KR^iShNa, whose form is eternal and full of knowledge and bliss, who is the rescuer from distress, who is understood by VedAnta, who is the supreme spiritual master, and who is the witness in everyone.as heart.
- GopAla-tApanI UpaniShad
taM tv aupaniShadaM puruShaM pR^icchAmi
"I shall now inquire about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is revealed in the UpaniShads."
- BR^ihad-AraNyaka UpaniShad 3.9.26
2. SaMshaya (doubt): What is the best method for understanding supremely worshipable Lord Hari: the mental speculation of the logicians, or the revelation of the VedAnta scriptures?
3. PUrvapakSha (the argument of the philosophical opposition): The sage Gautama (BR^ihad-AraNyaka UpaniShad 4.5) and others maintain that the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be understood by the speculations of the logicians.
4. SiddhAnta (the conclusion): In the VedAnta-sUtra, shrIla VyAsadeva explains that scriptural revelation is the real way to understand the Supreme Brahman. He says:
SUtra 3
shAstra-yonitvAt
shAstra - the scriptures; yonitvAt - because of being the origin of knowledge.
(The speculations of the logicians are unable to teach us about Supreme Personality of Godhead) because He may only be known by the revelation of the Vedic scriptures.
Purport by shrIla Baladeva VidyAbhUShaNa
In this sUtra the word "not" should be understood, even though it is not expressed. They who aspire after liberation are not able to understand the Personality of Godhead simply by logic and speculation. Why? Because He is known only by the revelation of the Vedic scriptures. Among the Vedic scriptures, the UpaniShads especially describe the Supreme Person. For this reason it is said aupaniShadaM puruSham (the Supreme Person is undertood through the revelation of the UpaniShads). The process of logic and speculation as described by the word mantavya (to be understood by logic) as described in BR^ihad-AraNyaka UpaniShad (4.5) should be employed to understand the revelation of the scriptures and not independently. This is confirmed by the following statement of shruti-shAstra:
pUrvApara-virodhena
ko .artho .atrAbhimato bhavet
ity Adyam uhanaM tarkaH
shuShka-tarkaM vivarjayet
"Logic is properly employed to resove apparent contradictions in the texts of the Vedas. Dry logic, without reference to scriptural revelation, should be abandoned."
For this reason the dry logic of Gautama and others should be rejected. This is also confired in sUtra 2.1.11. After understanding the Supreme Person by study of the UpaniShads, one should become rapt in meditation on Him. This will be explained later insUtra 2.1.27.
The Supreme Lord, Hari, is identical with His own transcendental form. He and His form are not two separate identities. He is the witness of all living entities, He is the resting place of a host of transcendental qualitities, He is the creator of the material universes, and He remains unchanged eternally. By hearing about His transcendental glories, one may worship Him perfectly.
At this point someone may raise the following objection:
The VedAnta philosophy does not give either positive orders or negative prohibitions, but simply descriptions, as the sentence "On the earth there are seven continents." Men need instruction in how to act. Therefore, what is needed is a series of orders to guide men. Men need orders, such as the ordinary orders. "A man desiring wealth should approach the king," or "One suffering from indigestion should restrict his intake of water," or the orders of the Vedas: svarga-kAmo yajeta (One desiring to enter the celestial material planets should worship the demigods), or sUraM na pibet (No one should drink wine). The UpaniShads do not give us a string of orders and prohibitions, but merely a description of the eternally perfect Brahman. for example the UpaniShads tell us satyam j~nAnam (The Supreme Personality of Godhead is truth and knowledge). This is of small help in the matter of orders and prohibitions. Sometimes the UpaniShads.a descriptions may be a little useful, as for example when they describe a certain demigod, the description may be useful when one performs a sacrifice to that demigod, but otherwise these descriptions afford us little practical beneifit, and are more or less useless. This is confirmed by the following statements of Jaimini Muni.
AmnAyasya kriyArthatvAd anArthAkhyam atad-arthanam
"The scriptures teach us pious duties. Any scriptural passage that does not teach us our duty is a senseless waste of our time."
- PUrva-mImAMsA 1.2.1
tad-bhUtAnAM kriyArthena samAmnAyo .arthasya tan-nimittatvAt
"Just as a verb gives meaning to a sentence, in the same way instructions for action give meaning to the statements of the scriptures."
- PUrva-mImAMsA 1.1.25
To this objection I reply: Do not be bewildered. Even though the UpaniShads do not give us a series of orders and prohibitions, still they teach us about the Supreme Brahman, the most important and valuable object to be attained by any living entity. Just as if in your house there were hidden treasure, and a description of its location were spoken to you, those words would not be useless simply because they were a description. In the same way the UpaniShads.a description of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the greatest treasure to be attained by any living being, whose form is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss, who is perfect and beyond any criticism, who is the friend of all living entities, the Supreme Lord who is so kind that He gives Himself to His devotees, and the supreme whole of all existence, of whom I am a tiny part, is not useless, but of great value to the conditioned soul. The descriptions of the Supreme Brahman in the UpaniShads are valuable, just as the description "your son is now born" is useful and a source of great joy, and the description "This is not a snake, but only a rope partly seen in the darkness," is also useful and a great relief from fear.
The specific benefit attained by understanding the Supreme Brahman are described in the following statement of TaittirIya UpaniShad (2.1):
satyaM j~nAnam anantaM brahma yo veda nihitaM guhAyAM so .ashnute sarvAn kAmAn
"The Supreme Personality of Godhead is limitless. He is transcendental knowledge, and He is the eternal transcendental reality. He is present in everyone as heart. One who properly understands Him becomes blessed and all his desires are completely fulfilled."
No one can say that the UpaniShads teach about ordinary fruitive action (karma). Rather, one may say that the UpaniShads teach one to give up all material, fruitive work. No one can say that the UpaniShads describe anything other than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the original creator, maintainer, and destroyer of all the universes, whose spiritual form is eternal, who is a great ocean of unlimited auspicious transcendental qualitities, and who is the resting-place of the goddess of fortune. Jaimini as description of the importance of karma, therefore, has no bearing on the UpaniShads.
In fact Jaimini was a faithful devotee of the Lord, and his apparent criticisms (in the two quotations presented above) of the Vedic texts that do not encourage fruitive work (karma) with sufficient enthusiasm, are his hint to us that there is more that pious fruitive work in the instructions of the Vedas. In this way it may be understood that the Supreme Brahman is the subject-matter described in the Vedic scriptures.
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