Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/71

 liv ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS.

who is different from the individual self commonly known as thejlva, or whether the Anandamaya is the jlva him- self. It can be made out from the context in the Taittl- rlya- Upamshad that the Anandamaya denotes the Brah- man who is the cause of the world ; and whether this Brahman is different from the jlva or not has therefore to be determined by making out what the Anandamaya means. According to the Saitkhyas the association of the individual self with matter is the cause of all creation, and individual selves may accumulate the merit of karma to such an extent as even to become presiding deities at the commencement of what is called a creating kalpa or cycle. Hence they are the Purvapakshins here, and hold that the Anandamaya is the individual self. They say that since the Anandamaya is declared in the Taittirlya- Upamshad to be associated with an embodiment, it cannot be anything other than the individual self. Again, the fact that what is declared to be the cause of the world is, in scriptural passages, grammatically equated with the individual self, is evidence to them that the individual self itself is the cause of the world. The individual self can 'see' and think ; and its final object of attainment is freedom from association with matter, in as much as such freedom from the bondage of matter and ignorance constitutes its essential nature and its bliss. With the object of pointing out this essential nature of the individual self, the Taittiriya-Upanishad says that the Anandamaya is different from the body (annamaya), different from the life inside it (prdnamaya), different from the mind within (manomaya], and different even from the understanding therein (vijndnamayd}. The Anandamaya is thus the innermost entity in the body, and is the same as the individual self (pp. 3^6-350.). Here the Adwaitin steps in with his interpretation of the