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FIRST ADHYAYA
FOURTH PADA.
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1. If it be said that some (mention) that which rests on Inference; we deny this because (the form) refers to what is contained in the simile of the body; and (this the text) shows.
So far the Sutras have given instruction about a Brahman, the enquiry into which serves as a means to obtain what is the highest good of man, viz. final release; which is the cause of the origination, and so on, of the world; which differs in nature from all non-sentient things such as the Pradhana, and from all intelligent beings whether in the state of bondage or of release; which is free from all shadow of imperfection; which is all knowing, all powerful, has the power of realising all its purposes, comprises within itself all blessed qualities, is the inner Self of all, and possesses unbounded power and might. But here a new special objection presents itself. In order to establish the theory maintained by Kapila, viz. of there being a Pradhana and individual souls which do not have their Self in Brahman, it is pointed out by some that in certain branches of the Veda there are met with certain passages which appear to adumbrate the doctrine of the Pradhana being the universal cause. The Sutras now apply themselves to the refutation of this view, in order thereby to confirm the theory of Brahman being the only cause of all.
We read in the Katha-Upanishad, 'Beyond the senses there are the objects, beyond the objects there is the mind, beyond the mind there is the intellect, the great Self is beyond the intellect. Beyond the Great there is the Unevolved, beyond the Unevolved there is the Person. Beyond the Person there is nothing--this is the goal, the highest road' (Ka. Up. I, 3, 11). The question here arises whether by the 'Unevolved' be or be not meant the Pradhana, as established by Kapila's theory, of which Brahman is not the Self.--The Purvapakshin maintains the former alternative. For, he says, in the clause 'beyond the Great is the Unevolved, beyond the Unevolved is the Person,' we recognise the arrangement of entities as established by the Sankhya-system, and hence must take the 'Unevolved' to be the Pradhana. This is further confirmed by the additional clause 'beyond the Person there is nothing,' which (in agreement with Sankhya principles) denies that there is any being beyond the soul, which itself is the twenty-fifth and last of the principles recognised by the Sankhyas. This prima facie view is expressed in the former part of the Sutra, 'If it be said that in the sakhas of some that which rests on Inference, i.e. the Pradhana, is stated as the universal cause.'
The latter part of the Sutra refutes this view. The word 'Unevolved' does not denote a Pradhana independent of Brahman; it rather denotes the body represented as a chariot in the simile of the body, i.e. in the passage instituting a comparison between the Self, body, intellect, and so on, on the one side, and the charioteer, chariot, &c. on the other side.--The details are as follows. The text at first--in the section beginning 'Know the Self to be the person driving,' &c., and ending 'he reaches the end of the journey, and that is the highest place of Vishnu' (I, 3, 3-9)--compares the devotee desirous of reaching the goal of his journey through the samsara, i.e. the abode of Vishnu, to a man driving in a chariot; and his body, senses, and so on, to the chariot and parts of the chariot; the meaning of the whole comparison being that he only reaches the goal who has the chariot, &c. in his control.
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