Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/70

 ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. liii

the Brahman is a mere attributeless intelligence and luminosity. Here the Brahman is declared to be associat- ed -with the real attribute of 'seeing', and His character as a witness cannot therefore be unreal. The 'seeing' and thinking Brahman must be an intelligent being, and to be an intelligent being is to possess the quality of intelligence. To be devoid of this attribute of intelligence is to be the same as the non-intelligent Pradhdna, which surely the Brahman is not. In the same way in which the Brahman cannot be attributeless, He cannot also be mere luminosity or intelligence. Indeed luminosity or intelligence is that which makes itself and other things fit to be realised by a cognising mind ; and a thing which is devoid of all attri- butes cannot possess this capacity. To grant that the Brahman has such a capacity is the same as to admit that He is none other than the all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good God ; and an attributeless entity cannot but be a mere nothing that is totally unrealisable (pp. 342-346.).

The sixth Adhikarana is z,Anandamayadhikarana, and contains also eight aphorisms from the thirteenth to the twentieth. The object of the last Adhikarana, known as the Jkshatyadhikarana, is to prove that the Brahman declared to be the cause of the world is not the same as the Pradhdna of the Sdnkhyas ; and the Anandamayddhi- harana shews that that Brahman is different from the in- dividual sell also. This Adhikarana is based on the Anan- davalll of the Taittirlya-Upanishad, and the first aphorism here runs thus: "That which is denoted by the word Anan- damaya is the Brahman; because there is, in the context, the repetition of various grades of bliss which culminate in the Anandamaa or the Highest Bliss." Here the doubt arises whether this Anandamaya is the Highest Self