Archived on 18-July-2011
Brahma Sutras OR Brahma Aphorisms
A preamble
Sri Hari is suprememost and all sentient beings and insentient matter are under His control. Hari’s majesty alone is described in the Vedas which are Apourusheyas. Anadi Nitya and immemorial ( अपौरुषेय अनादि नित्य शाश्वत ) . If anybody wants to know the correct purport of the vedas they have to refer to the Brahma Sutras only. Bhagavan Narayana himself incarnated as vedavyasa and composed the Brahma Sutras comprising 4 Chapters ,16 sub chapters , 223 topics ( Adhikaranas and 564 Sutras). The Sutras are very terse and laconic in nature.They have to be understood only with the aids of Bhashya ( Commentary ) . Theeka ( Elucidatory Commentary ) and Tippanis ( Notes ).
The Brahmasutras of Badarayana Vyasa are also Known as Vedanta sutras or Saareeraka sutras.These Sutras contain the authoritative Judgements on what exactly is the essence of the Vedas.On account of their laconic nature different commentaries have interpret them differently and in divergent ways. Sutrakara’s original thinking is lost in the labyrinth of many divergent commentaries over a period of time.
Before the advent of Sri Madhva ( 1238 – 1317 AD ), it is recorded that there existed 21 commentaries.The Bhava Prakasika of Sri Narayana Pandita , a commentary on Madhva Vjaya enumerates these 21 commentaries or rather commentators’ name as follows.
(1). Bharati Vijaya. (2). Satchidananda. (3) Brahma Ghosha. (4). Satananda. (5). Udvarta. (6) Vijaya. (7). Rudra Bhatta. (8). Vamana. (9). Yadava Prakasa. (10). Ramanuja. (11). Bharthrupancha. (12). Dramida. (13). Brahma Datta. (14). Bhaskara. (15). Pisaca. (16). Vrittikara ( or Bodhayana). (17). Vijaya Bhatta. (18). Vishnnu Kantha. (19). Vadindra. (20). Maadhava Dasa and (21). Sankara.These names are not in chronological order. Of those 21 , only three commentaries are available at present.They are of Sankara, Bhaskara and Ramanuja. Madhva wrote the 22 nd commentary which survives now. Subsequent to Madhva some more persons like Nimbarka, Srikanta, Sripati, Vallabha,Suka,Vijnana Bikshu and Baladeva Vidyabhushana wrote commentaries on the Aphorisms. Some of these commentaries are also available now. On the whole as on date some 10 or so commentaries on Brahma Sutras survive. But universally only three commentaries are accepted as the principal commentaries. They are (I) Sankara (II)Ramanuja and (III) Madhva.
The philosophies are Monism(Advaita), qualified Monism (Visishtadvaita) and Theistic Pluralism (Dvaita or Tattva Vaada)
These three have lot of followers even today and they are living philosophies.
The four chapters or Adhyayas are designated as Samanvaya, Avirodha,Sadhana and Phala adhyayas.
Samanvaya Adhyaya reconciles the different scriptuval texts and demonstrate how they all convey the nature and attributes of the supreme being , Brahman, the source of the universe which is the central point in all philosophical enquiry.
Avirodha Adhyaya confirms the conclusion of the first adhyaya by showing that it is not open to any contradictions or objection either by the other established doctrines or by the apparant inconsistencies within the scriptual texts themselves.
Sadhana Adhyaya discusses the ways and means of realising the supreme being as prescribed in the scriptures.
The Phaladhyaya deals how an individual soul attains the status of a released soul and obtains and enjoys its intrinsic unadultrated external bliss perpetually.
The Sutras are cryptic in nature.The sutras are in the nature of modern day news-paper headlines.For example ” Sachin shines”, a headline in newspaper does not convey any sense to anybody. after a period of time unless one knows the content of the topic recorded. It is an useless statement conveying at all to future readers. The headlines should be elaborated. Then only one can understand its purport. Similarly the Brahma Aphorims discuss various Vedantic topics with pros and cons and give the end results in a nutshell like ” headlines “. So, unless one reads the commentary one cannot understand what the topic is discussed and what it conveys etc,. The topic is logically discussed and arrived.
The very words in the Aphorsms are topic specific. The topics referred to by the Sutras could be popular ones debated in different scriptures in those days. So, unless one is able to locate the topic, the sutras cannot be intelligible. Infact various topics have been discussed by the disciples of Vyasa with Vyasa giving their own viewpoints called ‘ Purvapaksha ‘ and Vyasa determined the correct purport of the topic under discussion and gave final verdicts called Siddhanta.Finally he put down all his conclusions in nutshell in the form of an Aphorism. By seeing the sutra one has to infer the topic discussed and what met Poorvapaksha arguements and what are the Siddhanta conclusions etc,. All these are possible only if we have a correct commentary on the sutras or topics.
Inorder to explain the hypothesis of a Supersensuous Supreme being any doctrine in Vedanta has to present him with reference to the known sentient and insentient entities in the world. Any doctrine has to establish the relation between individual soul ( Jiva ), the inanimate matter called ‘ Jagat ‘ and the Supreme Lord, ‘Isa ‘. The Brahma Sutras do the above in a remarkable way. But the different commentators have explained Aphorisms in diverse ways. At one end Sankara holds absolute identity between Jiva Jagat and Brahan.. At the other end Madhva holds absolute differencses between the and inter-se. Others fall in between these two extremes. Now let us see the glory of Madhva Bashya in an another article.
Sri Krishnarpanamastu