IV-3 Śrī Bhāshya | Rāmānuja | 5

The following question now presents itself for consideration. Does the troop of conducting divinities, Agni and the rest, lead on those who meditate on the effected Brahman, i.e. Hiraṇyagarbha; or those only who meditate on the highest Brahman; or those who meditate on the highest Brahman and those who meditate on the individual Self as having Brahman for its Self?--The teacher Bādari is of opinion that the divinities lead on those only who meditate on the effected Brahman. For he only who meditates on Hiraṇyagarbha can move; while a person meditating on the highest Brahman which is absolutely complete, all-knowing, present everywhere, the Self of all, cannot possibly be conceived as moving to some other place in order to reach Brahman; for him Brahman rather is something already reached. For him the effect of true knowledge is only to put an end to that Nescience which has for its object Brahman, which, in reality, is eternally reached. He, on the other hand, who meditates on Hiraṇyagarbha may be conceived as moving in order to reach his object, which is something abiding within a special limited place. It is he therefore who is conducted on by Agni and the other escorting deities.

The text 'a person not human leads them to the worlds of Brahman' (Bri. Up. VI. 2, 15) by using the word 'world,' and moreover in the plural, determines the specification that the not-human person leads those only who meditate on Hiraṇyagarbha, who dwells within some particular world. Moreover, the text 'I enter the hall of Prajāpati, the house' (Kh. Up.VIII, 14) shows that he who goes on the path beginning with light aims at approaching Hiraṇyagarbha. But if this is so, there is a want of appropriate denotation in the clause, 'There is a person not human, he leads them to Brahman'; if Hiraṇyagarbha is meant, the text should say 'He leads them to Brahmā (Brāhmaṇa).'

Hiraṇyagarbha is the first created being (as declared by the text 'he who creates Brahma'); he thus stands near to Brahman, and therefore may be designated by the same term (viz. Brahman). This explanation is necessitated by the reasons set forth in the preceding Sūtras (which show that the real highest Brahman cannot be meant).--But, if the soul advancing on the path of the Gods reaches Hiraṇyagarbha only, texts such as 'This is the path of the Gods, the path of Brahman; those who proceed on that path do not return to the life of man' (Kh. Up. IV, 15, 6), and 'moving upwards by that a man reaches immortality' (VIII, 6, 6), are wrong in asserting that that soul attains to immortality and does not return; for the holy books teach that Hiraṇyagarbha, as a created being, passes away at the end of a dviparārdha-period; and the text 'Up to the world of Brahman the worlds return again' (Bha. Gī. VIII, 16) shows that those who have gone to Hiraṇyagarbha necessarily return also.

On the passing away of the effected world of Brahma, together with its ruler Hiraṇyagarbha, who then recognises his qualification for higher knowledge, the soul also which had gone to Hiraṇyagarbha attains to true knowledge and thus reaches Brahman, which is higher than that, i.e. higher than the effected world of Brahmā. This is known from the texts declaring that he who proceeds on the path of light reaches immortality and does not return; and is further confirmed by the text, 'They all, reaching the highest immortality, become free in the world of Brahman (Brahmā) at the time of the great end ' (Mu. Up. III, 2, 6).

This follows from Smriti also, which declares 'when the pralaya has come and the end of the Highest, they all together with Brahman enter the highest place.'--For all these reasons Bādari holds that the troop of the conducting deities, beginning with Light, leads the souls of those only who meditate on the effected Brahman, i e. Hiraṇyagarbha.

The teacher Jaimini is of opinion that those deities lead on the souls of those only who meditate on the highest Brahman. For in the text 'a person not human leads them to Brahman' the word Brahman is naturally taken in its primary sense (i.e. the highest Brahman); the secondary sense (i.e. the effected Brahman) can be admitted only if there are other valid reasons to refer the passage to the effected Brahman. And the alleged impossibility of the soul's going is no such valid reason; for although Brahman no doubt is present everywhere, Scripture declares that the soul of the wise frees itself from Nescience only on having gone to some particular place. That the origination of true knowledge depends on certain conditions of caste, āśrama, religious duty, purity of conduct, time, place, and so on, follows from certain scriptural texts, as e.g. 'Brāhmaṇas desire to know him through the study of the Veda' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 22); in the same way it follows from the text declaring the soul's going to Brahman that the final realisation of that highest knowledge which implies the cessation of all Nescience depends on the soul's going to some particular place. The arguments founded on texts alleged to declare that the soul of the wise does not pass out of the body at all we have refuted above. The argument that the specification implied in the text which mentions Brahman-worlds clearly points to the effected Brahman, i.e. Hiraṇyagarbha, is equally invalid. For the compound 'the Brahman-world' is to be explained as 'the world which is Brahman'; just as according to the Pūrva Mimāṁsa the compound 'Niṣāda-sthapati' denotes a sthapati who is a Niṣāda (not a sthapati of the Niṣādas). A thing even which is known as one only may be designated by a plural form, as in a mantra one girdle is spoken of as 'the fetters of Aditi.' And as to the case under discussion, we know on the authority of Scripture, Smriti, Itihāsa, and Purāṇa, that the wonderful worlds springing from the mere will of a perfect and omnipresent being cannot be but infinite.

And Scripture moreover directly declares that the soul which has departed by way of the artery in the upper part of the head and passed along the path of the Gods reaches the highest Brahman: 'This serene being having risen from the body, having reached the highest light manifests itself in its own shape ' (Kh. Up. VIII, 12, 3).--Against the contention that the text 'I enter the hall of Prajāpati, the house' shows that he who proceeds on the path beginning with light aims at the effected Brahman, the next Sūtra argues.

The aim of the soul is not at Hiraṇyagarbha, but at the highest Brahman itself. For the complementary sentence 'I am the glorious among Brāhmaṇas' shows that what the soul aims at is the condition of the universal Self, which has for its antecedent the putting off of all Nescience. For this appears from the preceding text, 'As a horse shakes his hairs and as the moon frees herself from the mouth of Rāhu; having shaken off the body may I obtain--the uncreated Brahman-world' declares that the Brahman-world, which is the thing to be reached, is something non-created, and explicitly states that reaching that world implies freedom from all bondage whatsoever.--It is for these reasons that Jaimini holds that the deities speeding the soul on its way lead on him only who has the highest Brahman for the object of his meditation. Now the Reverend Bādarāyaṇa declares his own view, which constitutes the final conclusion in this matter.