Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/79

 Ixii ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS.

it is also declared that, in the series consisting of the annamaya t the prdnamaya, the manomaya, the vijndna- maya and the Anandamaya, the embodied self of that which succeeds is the same as the embodied self of that which precedes ; and the Brahman who is the cause of the world is spoken of in this Taittiriya- Upanishad itself as the Self of the whole series of created beings. More- over it is distinctly stated in the Subdla- Upanishad that all the constituent principles of the universe form the body of the Highest Self. Therefore it is this Highest Self Himself who forms the embodied Self of the annamaya, the prdnamaya, the manomaya and the vijndnamaya ; and the Anandamaya is Himself the embodied Self of Himself. Thus the Supreme Self also has an embodiment ; He alone is the unconditioned and ever blissful Embodied Self. This is the reason why the sdstra which deals with the Brahman is known to worthy persons by the name of the 'Science of the Embodied Being.' Consequently the Anandamaya is the Highest Self, and is undoubtedly dis- tinct from the individual self (pp. 383-386.).

In the next aphorism another objection against the above interpretation of the Anandamaya is answered. In the word Anandamaya there is the affix known as mayat. According to Sanskrit grammar this affix generally signifies modification, although it may occasionally denote abun- dance as well. In the context the affix mayat is uniformly used so as to signify modification. Therefore the word Anan- damaya cannot be interpreted to mean any thing that is immodifiable. Even if it be granted that the mayat here denotes abundance, there is the difficulty that an abun- dance of bliss implies at least a modicum of misery. Therefore it is the modifiable individual self who is subject to misery that is denoted by the word Anandamaya.