वेदान्त पारिजात सौरभ (भगवद् निम्बार्काचार्य - द्वैताद्वैत वेदान्त ब्रह्मसूत्र भाष्य सटीक)

[SŪ. 3. 3. 33.
ADH. 15.] VEDĀNTA-KAUSTUBHA 647
happiness ¹, without measure, without inside and without outside.
It consumes nothing whatsoever ² Verily, O Gārgī, at the com-
mand of this Imperishable the sun and the moon stand held apart’ ’
(Bṛh. 3.8.8-9 ³). In the text of the followers of the Atharva-veda
too beginning: “Now, the higher is that whereby the Imperishable is
apprehended” (Muṇḍ. 1.1.5), it is said: “That which is invisible,
intangible, without family, without caste, without eye, without ear,
without hands and feet” (Muṇḍ. 1 1 6 ⁴).
Here the doubt is, whether the attributes, viz. non-grossness,
non-atomicity, invisibility, intangibility and the rest, which belong
to Brahman, denoted by the word ‘Imperishable’, which are mentioned
in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the text of the followers of the Atharva-
veda, and which establish the difference of Brahman from the sentient
and the non-sentient,—are to be inserted in all the meditations on
Brahman or not. On the suggestion, viz. that they are not to be
inserted, there being no purpose for that,—
(We reply.) There is a purpose. In those meditations on
Brahman too, it is Brahman, different from the sentient and the
non-sentient, that is the object to be attained by the attainers,—so
says (the author): “But there is the comprehension of the conceptions
of the Imperishable”. “The Imperishable” is Brahman. There
should be the “comprehension”, i.e. inclusion, of the “conceptions”
of non-grossness, non-atomicity and the rest also, connected with Him,
in all the meditations on Brahman, in order that we may understand
¹ Correct quotation : “amukham” (=without mouth) and not “asukham”.
Vide Bṛh. 3.3.8, p. 169.
² Omitted portion: “None whatsoever consumes it”.
³ Vide the dialogue between Gārgī and Yājñavalkya, Bṛh. 3.8. Gārgī
put two questions to Yājñavalkya: First: “That which is above the sky, that
which is beneath the earth, that which is between these two, sky and earth, that
which people call the past, the present and the future,—across what is that woven,
warp and woof ?” (Bṛh. 3.8.4). Answer: “That, O Gārgī, the Brāhmaṇas call
the Imperishable”, etc.
⁴ Vide Muṇḍ. 1 1. Brahmā taught this knowledge of Brahman to his
eldest son Atharva, who taught it to Aṅgir, who taught it to Bhāradvāja Satya-
vāha, who taught it to Aṅgiras. Then, Śaunaka, a great householder approached
Aṅgiras with the question: “Sir ! Through knowing which everything else
becomes known ?” (Muṇḍ. 1.1.3). Thereupon Aṅgiras proceeded to teach him
two kinds of knowledge, higher (or parā) and lower (or aparā). The lower so is
the knowledge of the four Vedas with their subsidiary parts, the higher is the
knowledge whereby the Imperishable is apprehended.