1.1.5
Brahma Sūtra / Adhyāya 1 / 1.1.5
ईक्षतेर् नाशब्दम्
īkṣater nāśabdam
The line
Because it saw, the cause is not the non-scriptural pradhāna (प्रधान).
नेपालीमा
यसले देखेकाले कारण अशास्त्रीय प्रधान होइन।
Where it sits
yataḥ (यतः) from 1.1.2 is the cause still in force, and brahman (ब्रह्मन्) from 1.1.1 is what the word denotes. The three Vedānta (वेदान्त) readings agree that the seer is not the pradhāna (प्रधान). They still differ, as at 1.1.1, on whether that seer is without qualities, qualified, or other than the soul.
Split: īkṣateḥ (ईक्षतेः) + na (न) + aśabdam (अशब्दम्)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| īkṣateḥ (ईक्षतेः) | ablative singular, feminine | because of seeing. īkṣati (ईक्षति) is the act of looking, here of thinking 'let me be many' |
| na (न) | indeclinable | not |
| aśabdam (अशब्दम्) | nominative singular, neuter | what is not the word, the cause that scripture does not teach, the Sāṃkhya (सांख्य) pradhāna (प्रधान) |
The phrases
The passage is the teaching to Śvetaketu (श्वेतकेतु). Being was one, without a second. It saw: may I become many. A seeing is the act of a mind. The pradhāna (प्रधान) of the Sāṃkhya (सांख्य) has no mind.
aśabdam (अशब्दम्) is that inferred cause, called non-word because no Vedic sentence teaches it. na denies it of the cause in this passage. The cause remains the brahman (ब्रह्मन्) of 1.1.2.
Sanskrit in this line
īkṣati (ईक्षति) is a feminine action-noun, so the ablative is īkṣateḥ (ईक्षतेः). na plus aśabdam (अशब्दम्) is recited nāśabdam (नाशब्दम्). aśabdam (अशब्दम्) is neuter because pradhāna (प्रधान) is neuter.
Say it back
Say the picture: Being saw. Say why that one verb removes the pradhāna (प्रधान).
Next
1.1.6. The seeing is not a figure of speech, because the cause is called the self.