Page:The Vedanta-sutras, with the Sri-bhashya of Ramanujacharya.djvu/90

 ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. Ixxiii

and non-intelligent things. This quality of being the support of all things can be appropriate!)' attributed only to the Highest Self who is the Internal Ruler of all things. To be the worthy object of such worship as leads to final release and immortality, to be the im- peller of all activities, to be the support of all, to be the Lord of all, and to be blissful, undecaying and immortal, are all attributes belonging to the Inner Self ; and they are ascribed to Indra and Prana. Therefore the words Indra and Prana denote the Supreme Self Himself here (pp. 427-430.). How can Indra presume that he is the possessor of all these attributes of the Inner Self? The third aphorism here gives the answer to this question. That Indra looked upon himself as the Highest Self is in accordance with the teaching given in the saslras, and in accordance with what Vamadeva is said to have done when he realised and saw the Brahman. After realising that the 1 Highest person is the Internal Ruler of all things, and that the universe is His body, Prahlada is also said to have declared that he was all things himself and that all things existed in him (pp. 430-432.). The characteristics of the individual self and of the principal vital air are mentioned clearly in the context wherein the words Indra and Prana occur. Therefore these words cannot denote the Brahman, who is different from the intelligent individual selves and from non-intelligent matter, and who is also the cause of the world. The last aphorism of this adhiharana gives, however, the reply to this supposition, by pointing out that it is allowable to worship and meditate on the Brahman in three ways, that those three ways of worship and meditation are assumed to be proper in the context here, and that one of those three ways is actually adopted therein. The Brah- man may be worshipped in His essential unembodied J