Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/78

 ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. Ixi

a thing which can exist as the mode of another thing, the existence, persistence, and realisation of that thing are invariably associated with this other thing. According!}-, the words which usually denote such things as are such modes denote also the things which are characterised by those modes. The material characteristics of the body do not taint the embodied individual soul ; similarly the weaknesses and deficiencies of individual souls do not affect the Brahman who is their Soul. In the grammati- cal equation ' That thou art ' the word ' That ' denotes, therefore, the Highest Self as the all-knowing, all-power- ful, and all-good cause of the world ; and the word ' thou ' also denotes that same Supreme Self as having for His body an embodied individual self. This interpretation of this grammatical equation is quite absolutely faultless ; and it denotes at the same time that the individual self which is a mode and hence an attribute of the Highest Self is for that very reason different from the Highest Self. The word Anandamaya has to denote this Highest Self; therefore it can neither denote the independent individual self of the Sdtikhyas, nor that other individual self of the Adwaitins which is in essence identical with the Supreme Self (pp. 379-383)-

The contention of the Purvapakshins that the grammatical equation of the word denoting the Brahman with words denoting individual selves is calculated to prove the Anandamaya to be the same as the individual self- is thus finally disposed of ; and their other contention that, since the Anandamaya is declared in the scripture to be associated with an embodiment, it cannot be any- thing other than the individual self is then taken up for disposal. It is no doubt true that the Anandamaya is declared to be the embodied self of the vijft&namaya ; but