Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/73

 Ivi ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS.

ill an order in which eiich succeeding bliss is a hundred fold of the bliss preceding it, so as to reach that bliss which forms the summit of an unsurpassable condition. This last bliss is not possible to the individual self, and denotes therefore the Brahman who alone can be its abode. Accordingly this Upanishad declares the Ananda- maya to be different from the vijfianamaya, which latter has necessarily to mean the same as the individual self. The word vijftanamaya cannot mean mere intellect or understanding ; for, if it be so interpreted, the affix may at that is found in it would be meaningless ; it really means the knower or the individual self. It is true that in the passage " The vijftdna performs the sacrifice " the word vijttana stands for vijildnamaya ; but it has to be borne in mind that words which denote the essential attributes of things are often used so as to denote those things them- selves ; besides, there are grammatical rules according to which the word vijilana has to mean an intelligent agent but not mere intelligence. The vijilana that performs the sacrifice is indeed an agent, which the mere intellect or understanding can never be ; and this same vijfldna is also said to own a body as its home. The Madhyandinas and the Kanvas have two separate recensions of the Brihadd- ranyaka- Upanisliad. In the recension of the latter there is a particular passage (III. 7. 22.) in which the word vijftdna occurs; and in the corresponding passage in the recension of the former it is found that the word dtman is used instead of the word vijfldna. This decides that the vijndna which is used in the place of the vijfidnamaya can be nothing other than the individual self, and the word vijfidnamaya itself very appropriately denotes the individual self. Therefore the Anandamaya, which is positively declared to be differ- ent from the vijfidnamaya, cannot denote the individual