IV-3 Śrī Bhāshya | Rāmānuja | 1

THIRD PĀDA.

The Sūtras now go on to determine the road which the soul of the wise man follows, after having-- assisted by the Person within the heart--passed out of the body by way of one particular artery. Now of that road various accounts are given in Scripture. There is a detailed account in the Chāṇḍogya. (IV, 15), 'now whether people perform obsequies for him or not,' etc. Another account is given in the eighth book of the same Upanishad,' then he moves upwards by those very rays ' (VIII, 6, 5). The Kaushitaki again give a different account: 'He having reached the path of the Gods comes to the world of Agni,' etc. (Kau. Up. I, 3). Different again in the Brihadāraṇyaka: 'Those who thus know this and those who in the forest meditate on faith and the True,' etc. (Bri. Up. VI, 2, 15). The same Upanishad, in another place (V, 10), gives a different account: 'When the person goes away from this world he comes to the wind,' etc.--A doubt here arises whether all these texts mean to give instruction as to one and the same road--the first stage of which is light--having to be followed by the soul of the wise man; or whether they describe different roads on any of which the soul may proceed.--The Pūrvapakshin holds the latter view; for he says the roads described differ in nature and are independent one of the other.--This view the Sūtra disposes of. All texts mean one and the same road only, viz. the one beginning with light, and the souls proceed on that road only. For that road is known, i.e. is recognised in all the various descriptions, although it is, in different texts, described with more or less fullness. We therefore have to proceed here as in the case of the details (guṇa) which are mentioned in different meditations referring to one and the same object, i.e. we have to combine the details mentioned in different places into one whole. The two Chāṇḍogya-texts-- the one in the Upakosala-vidyā and the one in the Vidyā of the five fires--describe exactly the same road. And in the Vidyā of the five fires as given in the Brihadāraṇyaka the same road, beginning with light, is also described, although there are differences in minor points; we therefore recognise the road described in the Chāṇḍogya. And in the other texts also we everywhere recognise the divinities of certain stages of the road, Agni, Āditya, and so on.

--Here terminates the Adhikaraṇa of 'that which begins with light.'