Satapatha Bramhana Part 05

SR No.: 007680
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1900
Total Pages: 2017
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 44 MB

Page 1280

72
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
of objects, 'The great elements, the ahamkara, the understanding (buddhi), and the Unevolved' (Bha. Gî. XIII, 5)? -Asin all passages, we reply, which give information about the true nature of the Self it is spoken of as the 'I,' we conclude that the 'I' constitutes the essential nature of the inward Self. Where, on the other hand, the Holy One declares the ahamkara-a special effect of the Unevolved-to be comprised within the sphere of the Objective, he means that principle which is called ahamkâra, because it causes the assumption of Egoity on the part of the body which belongs to the Not-self. Such egoity constitutes the ahamkâra also designated as pride or arrogance, which causes men to slight persons superior to themselves, and is referred to by scripture in many places as something evil. Such consciousness of the 'I' therefore as is not sublated by anything else has the Self for its object; while, on the other hand, such consciousness of the 'I' as has the body for its object is mere Nescience. In agreement with this the Reverend Parâsara has said, 'Hear from me the essential nature of Nescience; it is the attribution of Selfhood to what is not the Self. If the Self were pure consciousness then pure consciousness only, and not the quality of being a knowing subject, would present itself in the body also, which is a Not-self wrongly imagined to be a Self. The conclusion therefore remains that the Self is nothing but the knowing 'I.' Thus it has been said, "As is proved by perception, and as also results from reasoning and tradition, and from its connexion with ignorance, the Self presents itself as a knowing 'I.' And again, 'That which is different from body, senses, mind, and vital airs; which does not depend on other means; which is permanent, pervading, divided according to bodies--that is the Self blessed in itself. Here 'not dependent on other means' means 'self-luminous '; and 'pervading' means "being of such a nature as to enter, owing to excessive minuteness, into all non-sentient things.'
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