The four sutras - Brief Reflection

சங்கர: சங்கர: ஸாக்ஷாத் வ்யாஸோ நாராயண: ஸ்வயம் |

śaṅkaro śaṅkaraḥ sākṣāt vyāso nārāyaṇaḥ svayam |

Brief reflection on the first four sūtras

(inspired by the Śaṅkara-bhāṣyam)

athāto brahmajijñāsā 1.1.1

Bhagavatpaada: tatrāthābda ānantaryārthaḥ parigṛhyate nādhikārārthaḥ, brahmajijñāsāyāḥ anadhikāryatvāt

The word atha is used, to imply that it immediately follows (as in a sequence of in immediate sucession). nādhikārārthaḥ ~ not having a sense of commencement. (In other words), the desire to know Brahman cannot be commenced (viz., studying a book or performing yogānuśāsanam or taking a dive into grammar ~ śabdānuśāsanam). The desire to know Brahman is not an act of starting, but the natural culmination of preparation.

The sequence being sādhana-catuṣṭaya-sampatti  culminating into brahmajijñāsā, like Clay into a Pot - i.e nairantaryam between cause and effect. This also (from Sri Śaṅkara-bhāṣya mananam), implies that its ātmanah brahmatva-jijñāsā. This means, with involvement of sādhana catuṣṭayam, one must take to śravaṇam, mananam and nididhyāsanam, which culminates in the mind abandoning its finitude (same as leaving ignorance) and recognizing its infinite nature. Other than sādhana catuṣṭayam nothing precedes brahmajijñāsā, not even pūrva-mīmāṃsā (which can create further vāsanās, vikṣepas, and alternative life pursuits). Care must be taken to understand that pūrva mīmāṃsā is an excellent opportunity to pursue, as Karma Yoga, till the point it results in chitta śuddhi. This leads one to recognize īśvara-anugraha in the form of turning the mind towards developing sādhana catuṣṭayam. 

This matures into brahmajijñāsā, leading to sustained Vedānta-śravaṇam and ultimately to ātma niṣṭhaḥ.

The 2nd sutra ~ janmādyasya yataḥ beautifully communicates to the jijñāsu that Brahman is not an abstract or unknowable principle, but the source of all dṛśyam. This is taṭastha lakṣaṇa. It also establishes that the cause of the universe is not an insentient pradhāna but Brahman, which is intelligence and awareness at the root of all manifestation.

The 3rd sutra ~ śāstrayonitvāt. In the previous sutra Brahman (Omniscient) is referred to as source of the universe - its not taken to be a independent speculative postulation, but in fact its known as such only through Sruti - this is purpose of the 3rd sutra - śāstrayonitvāt.

- Any inference is acceptable only when it rests upon the foundation provided by Śruti. Whether Brahman is understood through taṭastha-lakṣaṇa as the cause of the universe, or through svarūpa-lakṣaṇa as satyam jñānam anantam brahma, it is Śruti alone that decisively reveals it.

- In the 2nd sūtra, Brahman is the source of the dṛśya prapañca. In the third sūtra, Brahman is the source of the Veda itself. The source of the all-encompassing Veda, known to us only partially today, is infinite knowledge itself. Thus Brahman is sarvajña.

Here, Brahman, already referred to as the source of the universe, is not posited as an independent speculative hypothesis. It is known only through Śruti. That is the purpose of the third sūtra.

The 4th sutra tat tu samanvayāt  ~ this is the beautiful process of systematically gaining the knowledge of Brahman. The idea here is the subject that fulfills the central theme of Vedanta, is identified by Samanvayam. Samanvaya also means consistency and convergence. What is consistently revealed through the study of the Upaniṣads, more precisely through the exposition of brahmavidyā, is Brahman, which is verily the Ātman.

Through samanvaya, Brahman is established as the tātparya-viṣaya, the intended subject matter. It is the prameya obtained through the pramāṇa, namely Vedānta.

Here the six liṅgas of śravaṇam, articulated in later texts such as Vedānta-sāra, are employed:

1. Upakrama-upasaṃhāra: consistency between beginning and conclusion

2. Abhyāsa: repetition

3. Apūrvātā: presentation of a unique truth

4. Phala: infallible result of the teaching

5. Arthavāda: eulogistic and explanatory statements

6. Upapatti: logical exposition through illustrations and prakriyās

Also the sutras from 5 onwards (till 134) use this 6 lingas, to show that Brahman is the subject of Brahmasutras (which are gleaned/distilled from Upanisads).

 All this culminates in the recognition of Brahman, as the very Self of the Knower.  With this recognition, the empirical distinctions of knower, known, and the process of knowing, including the empirical means such as śāstra, dissolve into oneness, namely Brahman.

The fourth sūtra corroborates the third. While the third establishes Brahman as the source of śāstra and declares Vedānta as the unique and final pramāṇa for Brahman, the fourth shows how this is consistently unfolded.

A refined understanding is not merely that Vedānta contains pramāṇa, but that Vedānta itself is the pramāṇa. More precisely, Vedānta is the antima pramāṇa, the final means of knowledge, by knowing which everything else becomes known.

I know that I exist, that I am, that I am aware. Yet avidyā superimposes finitude upon the infinite ground, giving rise to multiple consequences. Vedānta pramāṇa results in adhyāsa nivṛtti, desuperimposition, through which I recognize myself as sākṣī-caitanyam, the tvam-padārtha. This is accomplished through samanvaya within the śāstra corpus and through precise knowledge of the nature of the upādhi and its subsequent negation (i.e. adhyāropa apavāda nyāya).

All this is found through Vedānta itself. Thus it is not that Vedānta gives theory while practice is sought elsewhere. Vedānta-pramāṇam gives the truth, and the prakriyā for Self-unfoldment is also revealed therein. (adhyāropa apavāda nyāya includes pañca kośa prakriyā, avasthā traya prakriyā, and so on). 

Karma and upāsanā can lead to an evolution in the status of the body, as a result of puṇya the jīva accrues, and of the lokas it can inhabit, while jñāna, that is Vedānta-pramāṇa-janita-buddhiḥ, results in aśarīratvam, as in the very nature of the Self. This jñāna is unique in the sense that it is a vṛtti that disembodies the jīva and reveals to it its eternal ananta-ātma-lakṣaṇam.

aśarīraṃ śarīreṣu anavasthyeṣu avasthitam |
mahāntaṃ vibhum ātmānaṃ matvā dhīro na śocati || (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.22)

The intelligent one, having known the Self to be bodiless in all bodies, abiding in perishable things, and to be great and all-pervading, does not grieve.