Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/60

 ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. xliii

this supposed Vcdantic commandment cannot but be useless and absurd ; and the details of procedure to be adopted in carrying it out are indeed nowhere to be found in the sdstras. Therefore the Vedanta gives no commandment enjoining the non-phenomenalisation of the Brahman (pp. 288-293.).

Then the Dhyana-myoga-vadin comes forward with his objection against the contention of the Mlmamsaka, and declares that the Vedanta is authoritative in teaching us the true nature of the Brahman by means of the injunc- tion bearing upon His meditation. The Dhydna-niyoga- vddm is he who, while agreeing with the Mlmdmsakain holding that the scripture cannot be of any authority in relation to anything the idea corresponding to which is already naturally established, maintains at the same time that the Vedanta is nevertheless authoritative in relation to the Brahman, in as much as it gives a commandment enjoining the meditation of which He forms the object. This commandment enjoining meditation implies the thing to be meditated upon, and that thing is no other than the Brahman,QSQ real nature also is described in the Vedanta. The Brahman alone is real while all else that is different from Him is unreal. Accordingly, when there is contradic- tion between distinction and non-distinction, the latter alone is the reality ; and the final beatific release of the soul is the same as its becoming identified with the Brah- man. The achievement of this identification is not possi- ble without the help of that meditation which entirely relates to Him (pp. 293-295.).

Here the Adwaitin begins to oppose the Dhydna-niyoga- vddin^hd says that the freedom of the soul from the bond- age of avidyd can and does result merely from the knowledge of the syntactical meaning of scriptural sentences,