Brahma Sūtra (सूत्र)

Executive summary

The Brahma Sūtra (सूत्र) is the later inquiry. It does not retell the Upaniṣads (उपनिषद्). It decides, sentence by sentence, what they are about. Brahman is that from which the arising, the standing, and the dissolution of this world proceed. Scripture is the ground of that knowledge. The four books are concordance, the removal of conflict, the means, and the fruit. This file follows the count of 545 sūtras (सूत्र). Śaṅkara (शङ्कर)'s count of 555 is named on the book page and is not silently rewritten.

नेपालीमा

ब्रह्मसूत्र पछिल्लो जिज्ञासा हो। यसले उपनिषद् दोहोर्‍याउँदैन। वाक्यपिच्छे ती केका बारेमा हुन् भन्ने तोक्छ। ब्रह्म त्यो हो जसबाट यो जगत्को उत्पत्ति, स्थिति र लय हुन्छ। त्यो ज्ञानको आधार शास्त्र हो। चार अध्याय समन्वय, अविरोध, साधन र फल हुन्। यो फाइलमा ५४५ सूत्र छन्। शङ्करको ५५५ को गणना पुस्तकको पृष्ठमा भनिएको छ, र चुपचाप बदलिएको छैन।

Vedānta (वेदान्त) is the later inquiry into the Veda, also called Uttara Mīmāṃsā (मीमांसा). The book is the Brahma-sūtra (ब्रह्म-सूत्र) of Bādarāyaṇa (बादरायण). It does not retell the Upaniṣads (उपनिषद्). It decides, sentence by sentence, what they are about.

The first four sūtras (सूत्र) are the catuḥsūtrī (चतुःसूत्री). Inquiry into Brahman (ब्रह्मन्). Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) is that from which the arising, and the rest, of this world proceed. Scripture is the ground of that knowledge. And the Upaniṣad (उपनिषद्) sentences fit together as being about Brahman (ब्रह्मन्).

Three great readings divide on what that last claim comes to. Śaṅkara (शङ्कर) reads Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) as without a second, and the world as not other than it. Rāmānuja (रामानुज) reads Brahman (ब्रह्मन्) as the whole of which souls and the world are the body. Madhva reads God and the soul as two. These sittings follow the sūtra (सूत्र). Where a reading has to be chosen, the sitting says whose it is. The last line, 4.4.22, is anāvṛttiḥ (अनावृत्तिः) śabdād (शब्दाद्) anāvṛttiḥ (अनावृत्तिः) śabdāt (शब्दात्). The repetition is inside that one sūtra (सूत्र). Sandhi turns the first śabdāt (शब्दात्) into śabdād (शब्दाद्) before the vowel that follows. The note under this introduction gives the recension: 545 is the Southern and Viśiṣṭādvaita (विशिष्टाद्वैत) count, and Śaṅkara (शङ्कर)'s count is 555. The three readings are set side by side, with no commentary sat, on the theistic primer.

The student the tradition expected had already studied the Upaniṣads (उपनिषद्) and the Bhagavad Gītā (गीता), and had the four qualifications: telling the lasting from the passing, dispassion, the six inner possessions (calm, restraint, settling down, endurance, trust, and collectedness), and the wish to be free. The sitting does not pretend you have them. It tells you which Upaniṣad (उपनिषद्) passage the line is judging, when that is known. Sat on this shelf: the Māṇḍūkya (माण्डूक्य), the Īśāvāsya (ईशावास्य), and the Kaṭha (कठ).

Śaṅkara (शङ्कर)'s verses to a student are the Upadeśasāhasrī (उपदेशसाहस्री). They are his reading. The line on this page is still the sūtra (सूत्र).

This text follows the 545-sūtra (सूत्र) recension preserved in the Southern and Viśiṣṭādvaita (विशिष्टाद्वैत) manuscript lineages, which groups certain adhikaraṇa (अधिकरण) sūtras (सूत्र) differently than Śaṅkarācārya (शङ्कराचार्य)'s 555-sūtra (सूत्र) count. That 545 is the count of Rāmānuja (रामानुज)'s Śrī-bhāṣya (श्रीभाष्य). Śaṅkara (शङ्कर)'s Śārīraka-bhāṣya (शारीरकभाष्य) is the traditional 555. The groupings that make his 555 stay with that bhāṣya (भाष्य). This file keeps the 545 pādas (पाद) listed below.

Adhyāya (अध्याय)पाद 1पाद 2पाद 3पाद 4In this file
132334429138
236425219149
327406451182
41920152276
545

545 of 545 lines are written out word by word.

Begin at 1.1.1

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