Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/86

 ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. IxJX

not right to say that the word dkdsa cannot be interpreted to mean anything other than the well known material element ether ; for, in the context, that word is used so as to denote a thing that has been already described. The thing so described is the Brahman ; and in as much as He possesses the power of illuminating things, He is very appropriately called Akdsa. The forced adoption of an interpretation that is against the context is in no way reasonable. It is true that the word dtman is occasionally used so as to denote a non-intelligent thing, but the gene- ral rule is that it has to denote an intelligent entity ; and the scripture ascribes to what forms the cause of the world such attributes as belong only to an intelligent being. It is thus a settled conclusion that the omniscient, omnipo- tent and omnipenetrative Brahman alone is denoted by the word Akdsa in the context referred to above (pp.

The Prdnddhikarana is a short one containing only one aphorism, which says that the word Prdna also is used in the CJihdndogya-Upanishad to denote the Brahman. Here prdna cannot mean merely life or vital air, in as much as it is used to denote a thing that has been otherwise describ- ed, and in as much as it is characterised to be an entity into which the world enters and out of which the world comes. Seeing that most things are dependent upon /i/e, we cannot interpret this causal Prdna to mean life. Stocks and stones and the essence of the intelli- gent individual self are all pervaded by the Brahman, and are thus dependent upon the Brahman ; but there is no life or physical vitality in them. Therefore the word Prdna also denotes, like the word Akasa, that all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good Brahman who