Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/85

 ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS.

denote the Brahman, who is the cause of the world and the home of all auspicious qualities and divine sovereignties. Here, it is pointed out that the word Akasa is also used, in the passage referred to above, to denote that same Brah- man. The Pfirvapakshin here contends that the word dkdsa must be interpreted to mean nothing other than the material element of akasa or ether. No one has any right to interpret a word so as to make it have a meaning which is other than its usual significance; and, when it is said in the scriptures that all beings are born out of the akasa, what is meant to be taught is that the whole world has been evolved out of the material element known as ether. The qualities of ( seeing ', thinking, and willing are attributed to the cause of the world only figuratively. The word sat also means the material element known as dkdsa, and the word at man also may legitimately be interpreted to mean the same thing. That dkdsa is sometimes pointed out to be a produced effect, does not go against its being the cause of the world ; because it is capable of existing both in the unevolved and the evolved conditions. This view agrees also with other statements in the scripture regarding the dkdsa ; therefore the Brahman is not other than the well known element of akasa (pp. 409-413.). Against this contention it is argued that the Upanishadic passage on which this aphorism is based assigns to Akd'sa such attri- butes as cannot appropriately belong to the element ether. This element cannot be the cause of all things, in as much as the intelligent individual self cannot be born out of non-intelligent matter; it cannot be greater than all things, because to be greater than all things is to be unconditioned ; nor can it be the best refuge, as long as it is merely that non-intelligent thing which deserves to be discarded and the attainment of which forms no desirable aim of life. It is