Sutra 1.1.2 - janmādy asya yataḥ
The second sutra provides the first clue to understanding the transcendental nature of Brahman, explaining that He is the source of all that exists. This has two very profound implications.
« Vedānta-sūtra: The Govinda-bhāṣya of Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa
Sutra 1.1.2 - janmādy asya yataḥ
» janmādy asya yataḥ «
janmadi: origin; asya: of that; yatah: from whom.
Brahman, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is He from whom everything emanates.
Commentary: The first sutra speaks about the importance of using our human intelligence to inquire about Brahman, but who or what is Brahman? Would Brahman be some kind of impersonal object? Would Brahman be some kind of formless conscious being? Would Brahman be a person like us?
The second sutra provides the first clue to understanding the transcendental nature of Brahman, explaining that He is the source of all that exists. This has two very profound implications:
The first is that if Brahman is the source of the material nature, including all the material universes, this means Brahman is transcendental to the material nature. If an artist makes a painting, this proves that his nature is different from the painting. If the artist were also a painting, he would not have the hands to paint it. Therefore, the fact that Brahman is the source of the material nature and of all material universes proves that He is different from it. In other words, Brahman is transcendental.
The second implication is that Brahman must be a conscious being. If I say that "John created this car", this implies that John is a person, since a rock or a lamp would not be capable of creating a car. I may not know who John is, but just from the fact that he created a car, I can understand that He is a person.
Srila Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa mentions that the word "janmadi" is a bahuvrīhi compound, called a tad-guṇa-saṁvijñāna, a possessive compound describing someone or something that possesses the qualities indicated by the components. In other words, in this type of compound, the implied qualities are perceived together with the object itself. In this way, it should be interpreted to mean "creation, maintenance, and destruction", meaning that the Lord is the origin in the full sense, not just being the source, but also the maintainer and the final destination.
The word "asya" also has a very broad meaning; it means literally everything and everyone inside the universe. He defines it as "of this material universe with fourteen planetary systems, which is inhabited by various creatures from the demigod Brahma down to the lowest unmoving blade of grass, all of who enjoy and suffer the results of their various fruitive actions (karma), and who cannot understand the astonishing structure of the universe where they live."
Finally, the word "yataḥ" means "from whom". Everything emanates from the Supreme Brahman, who manifested the universe from his inconceivable potencies. This is the Supreme Brahman we should inquire about.
This meaning is confirmed by Srila Vyāsadeva himself in the first verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam, which is a purport for this sutra. There, janmādy asya yataḥ is expanded into a beautiful verse that defines the absolute truth as the Supreme Personality of Godhead beyond doubt:
oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
janmādy asya yato ’nvayād itarataś cārtheṣv abhijñaḥ svarāṭ
tene brahma hṛdā ya ādi-kavaye muhyanti yat sūrayaḥ
tejo-vāri-mṛdāṁ yathā vinimayo yatra tri-sargo ’mṛṣā
dhāmnā svena sadā nirasta-kuhakaṁ satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi
"O my Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmājī, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth." (SB 1.1.1)
Counterarguments: Is Brahman the jīva?
At this point, one could insist, following the arguments posed in the previous sutra, that the word "Brahman" in the Vedanta-sutra should be interpreted as the individual soul, based on a few passages from the Upaniṣads, like this one, for example:
vijñānaṁ brahma ced veda, tasmāc cen na pramādyati
śarīre pāpmānaṁ hitvā, sarvān kāmān samaśnute
Taken in isolation, this passage could be interpreted as: "If one knows the Self in truth, and does not deviate from it, one leaves the body and all evils behind and attains all desires".
Taking the passage into this spirit, one could try to use it to sustain that Brahman means the individual soul. However, these two lines are part of a larger verse of the Taittirīya Upanisad (2.5.1) that can be translated as:
"Spiritual understanding (vijñāna) is the basis for the performance of sacrifice; all the sacred acts are performed thanks to it. All the devas worship this transcendental understanding as Brahman, the oldest. If a man knows vijñānam as Brahman, and if he does not deviate from it, he leaves all evils behind in the body and attains all his desires (on the transcendental platform). The vijñāna-maya purusha is pervaded by another self, the ānanda-maya. The ānanda-maya has the form of a human, like the previous puruṣa. His head is pleasure (priya), his right side is joy (moda), his left side is delight (pramoda), his identity is bliss (ānanda), and his foundation is Brahman (the Lord Himself)."
This verse is part of the ānanda-vallī, the second chapter of the book, which is centered around the description of the anna-maya, prāṇa-maya, mano-maya, vijñana-maya, and ananda-maya, discussing the evolution of consciousness of the conditioned soul, going from being absorbed into the basic needs of the body, all the way up to the platform of pure devotional service.
In a lower stage of existence, the consciousness of a living entity is centered on just getting enough food and growing its body. At this stage, the soul is completely covered by ignorance, and there is no higher aspiration; one feels satisfied by just eating. This is the anna-maya stage of consciousness, based on just anna, food. There is, however, a higher self that exists inside the gross body composed of food: the prāṇa-maya person, composed of the vital air. It implies becoming conscious of the idea of maintaining one's life, finding shelter, defending against others, and so on. At this stage, the consciousness is focused on collecting different resources that one needs to remain alive and expand one's dominions.
Higher than the prāṇa-maya is the mano-maya, the subtle body composed of mind, intelligence, and ego. The subtle body is more refined than the vital air and is much more intimately connected with the soul. The stage of mano-maya is still materialistic but superior to the other two. While in the prāṇa-maya stage, one is concerned about just maintaining his material existence and increasing his domains, in the mano-maya stage, one becomes concerned about the activities of the mind and intelligence. In this stage, obtaining knowledge and reasoning about different topics becomes the center of one's activities. At this point, one becomes a philosopher or someone interested in finer knowledge. In a higher stage, one comes to the study of the Vedas.
The next stage is the vijñāna-maya, the stage where spiritual consciousness finally becomes prominent, and one starts seeing oneself as a soul. This vijñāna-maya stage of consciousness is described as having a human form, composed of faith, proper conduct, eternity, and connection with the Lord. These are characteristics of the soul, and one who reaches the stage of vijñāna-maya develops these qualities. Once we attain the stage of vijñāna-maya, we gain the power to continue evolving our spiritual realization and gradually regain, by the mercy of the Lord, our original transcendental nature.
The last stage of evolution is the ānanda-maya stage, where one realizes one's eternal relationship with the Lord. When the jīva recovers his original consciousness, his life of spiritual enjoyment is revived. The foundation of this stage of eternal happiness is the Lord Himself, in His personal form, who is the object of affection. This transcendental stage of ānanda-maya is what Srila Prabhupada describes as Krsna Consciousness.
To develop this Krsna Consciousness, the Taittirīya Upanisad teaches us to see the Supreme Lord at each of the stages, as anna, prāṇa, etc. In this way, vijñāna is also seen as the Supreme Brahman, and therefore, the verse says that "If a man knows vijñānam as Brahman, and if he does not deviate from it, he leaves all evils behind in the body and attains all his desires."
However, if taken separately, outside of the context of the rest of the verse, and the rest of the book, the lines vijñānaṁ brahma ced veda, tasmāc cen na pramādyati, śarīre pāpmānaṁ hitvā, sarvān kāmān samaśnute can be translated as "I one knows the Self in truth, and does not deviate from it, one leaves the body and all evils behind and attains all desires".
As you can see, if taken out of context, the word "vijñānaṁ brahma" in the passage can be misinterpreted as meaning simply "know the Self", which can then be misattributed to the individual soul. The verse then appears to mean that, knowing oneself, a person becomes free from birth and death.
Why are such misinterpretations possible?
The point is that Sanskrit words have primary and secondary meanings. The words "bhūma" and "ātma" (used in the same meaning as the word "brahman" in several passages), for example, mean both "all-pervading". Both words refer primarily to the Supreme Personality of Goodhead, and only secondarily to the individual souls. There are two topics later in the book specifically dedicated to discussing the proper meaning of these two terms, the Bhūmādhikaraṇa (1.3.7) and Vākyānvayādhikaraṇa (1.4.19). In short, just like many other terms, the primary meaning of both is the Supreme Brahman, and other meanings are secondary.
The word "Brahman", in turn, means "He who possesses boundless exalted qualities". Again, the primary meaning of the word is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and other meanings are merely secondary. While some verses of the scriptures use the word in the sense of the individual soul, the majority of references use Brahman in the primary term, addressing the Supreme Lord.
Sri Baladeva quotes the following verse from the sruti-sastra to corroborate this point:
atha kasmād ucyate brahmeti bṛhanto hi asmin guṇāḥ
"From whom has this universe become manifest? From Brahman, who possesses an abundance of exalted transcendental qualities."
For what reason is the word "Brahman" sometimes used in relation to the individual souls? All souls manifest a small portion of the spiritual qualities of the Supreme Lord, and thus they may be called Brahman in the same way as royal titles may be given not just to the king, but also to different subordinates and associates, or in the same way the name of the father is also given to his sons. However, the Supreme Brahman is the only one who can give release from material suffering and grant one ultimate perfection. This is the Brahman we should inquire into. The Lord has transcendental qualities and is very merciful towards those who take shelter of Him, and thus He is the object of inquiry in the Vedanta-sutra.
How can we find this knowledge about the Lord? Srila Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa mentions that there are two types of knowledge, defined as parokṣa and aparokṣa. Parokṣa means transcendental knowledge obtained from authorities and other sources apart from the senses. Aparokṣa, in turn, refers to realization, when we can directly experience a higher truth. Parokṣa is the means, while aparokṣa is the final result. If we are to inquire from the right sources, parokṣa can bring us closer to the Supreme Brahman, while aparokṣa can manifest the Supreme Brahman before us.
An example of these two kinds of knowledge may be seen in the following quote from the sruti-sastra:
vijñāya prajñāṁ kurvīta
"Having learned about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one should cultivate realized insight, meditating upon Him." (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, 4.4.21)
This verse is part of the long philosophical discussions between Yājñavalkya and King Janaka in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad. In this part, Yājñavalkya explains the process of transmigration of the soul, explaining that just as a caterpillar transfers itself from one leaf to another by coming to the end of the first leaf and from there taking support in another blade, the soul transfers itself to another body at the time of death. Just as a goldsmith takes a piece of gold and hammers it into a new ornament, the soul shapes the material elements into a new body while inside the womb of the mother. The conditioned soul is full of desires, and because of these desires, one acts, sometimes piously and sometimes sinfully. As long as one has material desires, one is forced to go from one body to another, but when one attains freedom from material desires, one becomes immortal.
How is freedom from desires attained? The Upaniṣad recommends meditation on the Lord, starting with the process of hearing about Him. After learning about the Lord, one should realize Him through meditation, gradually progressing up to the process of seeing His transcendental form (as described in more detail in the teachings of Lord Kapila in the 3rd canto of Srimad Bhagavatam). In other words, the transcendental knowledge received from authorities (parokṣa), when practiced, leads to aparokṣa, the direct realization of the Supreme Lord.
The Upaniṣad adverts, however, that nānudhyāyād bahūñ chabdān vāco viglāpanaṁ hi tad iti: one should not bring forward many words, which will be just a waste of time, alerting that one should hear from qualified sources and then practice, instead of just being engaged in empty speculative talk. In short, we advance by hearing and practicing what we hear, and not by just uselessly discussing or debating on topics we don't fully understand. The Lord is unborn, full of knowledge. He resides inside the heart, but at the same time is the greatest of all and the protector of all, unaffected by mundane piety or impiety. Desiring to attain Him, sannyāsīs wander around the world, brāhmanas recite the Vedas, others perform sacrifices, austerities, fasting, etc. One who knows Him becomes a sage.
Sri Baladeva adds that understanding our real identity as spirit souls is certainly very helpful in understanding Brahman. However, it's important to understand that the individual soul is always different from the Supreme Brahman. Even after attaining liberation, the soul remains eternally different from the Lord. This intrinsic difference is described in more detail later in this book, in sutras 1.1.16, 1.1.17, 1.3.5, 1.3.21, and 1.3.41.
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