Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/18

 AN ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF THE CONTENTS OF VOLUME

In the Introduction to his Veddntadipa Ramanuja summarises the teachings of the Vedanta to the following effect : Of the three ultimate entities known to philosophy, the intelligent individual soul is essentially different from non-intelligent matter ; and God, who forms the Supreme Soul of the universe, is absolutely different from the individual soul. The essential differences thus existing between matter, soul and God are intrinsic and natural. God, who is the same as the Supreme Brahman, is the cause of the universe ; and the universe, which is made up of matter and soul, is the effect produced by Him. Matter and soul form the body of God ; and this body is capable of existing in a subtle as well as in a gross condition. God with his subtle body constitutes the universe in its causal condition; and with His gross body He forms the created universe itself. The individual soul enters into matter and thereby makes it live ; and similarly God enters into matter and soul and gives them their powers and their peculiar characters. The universe without God is exactly analogous to matter without soul; and in the world as we know it, all things are what they are, because God has penetrated into them and rules and guides them all from within, so much so that all things are representative of Him and all words denote Him in the main.

The first part of the first chapter of the Vedanta-Sutras of Badarayana deals, says Ramanuja, with the question of what constitutes the cause of the world; and