Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/80

 ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. Ixiii

Such is the position of the Pilrvapakshin, and it is counter- acted by this aphorism which says that the may at here signi- fies only abundance. In the giaded repetition of the various kinds of bliss, the highest unsurpassable bliss happens to be that which is attributed to the Anandamaya ; and the Anandamaya must therefore mean the immodifiable and ever blissful Brahman. In the context the affix mayat cannot be uniformly interpreted to mean modification, in as much as the vordprdnamaya has to be interpreted to mean the same thing as the word prdna means, or to mean that which has the activity of the prdna in abundance. It is as common to use the affix mayat in the sense of abundance as it is to use it in the sense of modification. An abundance of bliss does not necessarily imply a modicum of misery ; on the other hand it only implies the negation of the smallness of bliss. The scripture says distinctly that the Brahmanis wholly free from sin and from misery. The unsurpassably large amount of bliss belonging to the Brahman implies also the smallness of the bliss belonging to others ; and it is not right to hold that the individual self is a modifica- tion of bliss, in as much as the knowledge and the bliss of the individual self are only in a state of contraction when in the condition of samsdra. Therefore also the Ananda- maya is different from the individual self and is the same as the Supreme Self. (pp. 386-390.).

The next aphorism says that the Anandamaya is not the individual self, in as much as He is declared to be the cause of bliss to all individual selves. The source of bliss cannot be the same as he who receives bliss therefrom (pp. 390-391.). The fourth aphorism in the Adhikarana says that that same Brahman, who is denoted by the words of the mantra which begins with 'The Brahman is Existence, Knowledge, Infinity/ is spoken of as the Anandamaya,