Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/53

 XXXVi ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS.

&c., define the Brahman to be the only cause of the universe, and the scriptural passage " The Brahman is- Existence, Knowledge, Infinity" denotes His essen- tial nature to be different from that of all other things ; and indeed there is no fallacy of reciprocal dependence between these two ways of knowing the Brahman. Thus the attributes of universal creation, &c., do de- fine the Brahman, and He is quite capable of being understood by means of a definition (pp. 261-263."). Con- sequently the Brahman cannot be a mere attributeless Being ; etymology gives Him the characteristics of Great- ness and Growth, this aphorism defines Him as the Cause of the Universe, and other aphorisms endow Him with the power of 'seeing', &c. These aphorisms and the scriptural passages on which they are based do not constitute any authority for holding the opinion that the Brahman is an altogether attributeiess Being. Logic deals with the simi- larities in the distribution of attributes among entities, and cannot of course prove an attributeless thing. Finally, it is not possible to interpret this aphorism to mean that the Brahman is the cause of the illusion of phenomena ; because this illusion has to be based upon avidya, and the Brahman cannot be identical with it, but has to be a wit- ness thereof. To be such a witness implies that He has the character of homogeneous luminosity, whereby He ceases to be attributeless; and to deprive Him of this characteristic attribute of luminosity is to convert Him into nothingness (pp. 263-264.).

The third Adhikarana also contains only one aphorism which runs thus : "That the Brahman is th& cause of the creation, &c., of the universe, follows altogether from the scripture ; because the scripture forms the source of the