{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/sbe34/sbe34182.htm","path":"hin/sbe34/sbe34182.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe34/sbe34182.htm","text":"The Vedanta Sutras, commentary by Sankaracharya (SBE34), tr. by George Thibaut [1890]\n6. Even if we admit (the S\u00e2nkhya position refuted in what precedes, it is invalidated by other objections) on account of the absence of a purpose (on the part of the pradh\u00e2na).\nEven if we, accommodating ourselves to your (the S\u00e2nkhya's) belief, should admit what has been disproved in the preceding S\u00fbtra, viz. that the pradh\u00e2na is spontaneously active, still your opinion would lie open to an objection 'on account of the absence of a purpose.' For if the spontaneous activity of the pradh\u00e2na has, as you say, no reference to anything else, it will have no reference not only to any aiding principle, but also to any purpose or motive, and consequently your doctrine that the pradh\u00e2na is active in order to effect the purpose of man will become untenable. If you reply that the pradh\u00e2na does not indeed regard any aiding principle, but does regard a purpose, we remark that in that case we must distinguish between the different possible purposes, viz. either enjoyment (on the part of the soul), or final release, or both. If enjoyment, what enjoyment, we ask, can belong to the soul which is naturally incapable of any accretion (of pleasure or pain) 1? Moreover, there would in that case be no opportunity for release 2.--If release, then the activity of the pradh\u00e2na would be purposeless, as even antecedently to it the soul is in the\nstate of release; moreover, there would then be no occasion for the perception of sounds, &c. 1--If both, then, on account of the infinite number of the objects of pradh\u00e2na to be enjoyed (by the soul) 2, there would be no opportunity for final release. Nor can the satisfaction of a desire be considered as the purpose of the activity of the pradh\u00e2na; for neither the non-intelligent pradh\u00e2na nor the essentially pure soul can feel any desire.--If, finally, you should assume the pradh\u00e2na to be active, because otherwise the power of sight (belonging to the soul on account of its intelligent nature) and the creative power (belonging to the pradh\u00e2na) would be purposeless; it would follow that, as the creative power of the pradh\u00e2na does not cease at any time any more than the soul's power of sight docs, the apparent world would never come to an end, so that no final release of the soul could take place 3.--It is, therefore, impossible to maintain that the pradh\u00e2na enters on its activity for the purposes of the soul.\n372:1 An\u00e2dhey\u00e2tisayasya sukhadukhapr\u00e2ptiparih\u00e2rar\u00fbp\u00e2tisayas\u00fbnyasyety arthah. \u00c2n. Gi.\n372:2 For the soul as being of an entirely inactive nature cannot of itself aim at release, and the pradh\u00e2na aims--ex hypothesi--only at the soul's undergoing varied experience.\n373:1 I.e. for the various items constituting enjoyment or experience.\n373:2 Trit\u00eeye#pi katipayasabd\u00e2dyupalabdhir v\u00e2 samastatadupalabdhir v\u00e2 bhoga iti vikalpy\u00e2dye sarvesh\u00e2m ekadaiva muktih sy\u00e2d iti manv\u00e2no dvit\u00eeyam praty\u00e2ha ubhay\u00e2rthateti. \u00c2n. Gi.\n373:3 The MSS. of \u00c2nanda Giri omit sams\u00e2r\u00e2nukkhed\u00e2t; the Bh\u00e2mat\u00ee's reading is: Sargasaktyanukkhedavad driksaktyanukkhed\u00e2t.","title":"The Vedanta Sutras, Sankaracharya, comm.: Second Adhy\u00e2ya, Second P\u00e2da: II, 2, 6","type":"page"}