Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/89

 XXll ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS.

The eleventh Adhiharana is known as the Indraprd- n&dhikarana, and consists of four aphorisms. This adhika- rana is mainly based on passages to be found in the Kau- shUaki-Brdhmana-Upanishad. In one of them Pratar- dana, the son of Divodasa, is said to have gone to the abode of Indra and there to have been told by him to choose a boon. On Pratardana saying that on his behalf Indra himself may choose such a boon as is most beneficial to man, Indra is declared to have said " Indeed I am the Prdna and the Omniscient Self. Worship and meditate on me as life, as immortality." Here Indra is seen to desig- nate himself as Prdna and to affirm that he is himself a worthy object of worship and meditation. Here the doubt naturally arises whether this Indra who calls himself Prdna is merely the individual self known as the god Indra, or whether he is the Supreme Self who is other than any indi- vidual self. The first aphorism of the Adhikarana main- tains that the words Indra and Prdna denote the Supreme Self, in as much as on that supposition alone the sequel be- comes appropriate, wherein it is said that this Prdna is the Omniscient Self who is blissful, undecaying and immortal, (pp. 425-427.). The context of the passage quoted above makes it quite clear that it is the god Indra who is the speak- er therein, and as if for recognition and identification he also calls himself here as the slayer of Tvashtra ; and when he says that he himself is a worthy object of worship and me- ditation, it cannot be that the word Indra denotes any thing other than the god of that name. The second aphorism here gives the reply to this objection, and says that it cannot be so, because there is in the context the mention of a multitude of attributes belonging to the Inner Self. The Kaushitaki-Brdhmana-Upanishad says that Prdna is the support of the whole universe that is made up of intelligent