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Updated: June 2, 2025
But the topic with which the Vedanta-texts are concerned is hard to understand, and hence, when a conflict arises between those texts and a Smriti propounded by some great Rishi, the matter does not admit of immediate decisive settlement: it is not therefore unreasonable to undertake to prove by Smriti that Scripture does not set forth a certain doctrine. 'the Rishi Kapila, Svet. Up.
We have proved that Brahman, which the Vedanta-texts teach to be the sole cause of the world, must be an intelligent principle other than the non-sentient pradhana, since Brahman is said to think.
The assertion that Brahman, as the cause of the origination, &c., of the world, must be known through the Vedanta-texts is unfounded; for as Brahman may be inferred as the cause of the world through ordinary reasoning, it is not something requiring to be taught by authoritative texts. To this objection the next Sutra replies.
It must indeed be admitted, he says, that the Vedanta-texts teach the cause of the world to be an all-knowing Lord; for they attribute to that cause thought and similar characteristics.
For I am the enjoyer and the Lord of all sacrifices; but they know me not in truth and hence they fall, and 'Thou art ever worshipped by me with sacrifices; thou alone, bearing the form of pitris and of gods, enjoyest all the offerings made to either. Nor finally can we admit the contention that it is rational to interpret the Vedanta-texts in accordance with Kapila's Smriti because Kapila, in the Svetasvatara text, is referred to as a competent person.
It is possible to ascertain from the Vedanta-texts that the world springs from none other than the highest Brahman, which is all- knowing, lord of all, free from all shadow of imperfection, capable of absolutely realising its purposes, and so on; since scripture declares Brahman as described to be the cause of Ether, and so on. Up. Up.
Nor is this becoming one with Brahman to be accomplished by the mere cognition of the sense of certain Vedanta-texts; for this is not observed the fact rather being that the view of plurality persists even after the cognition of the sense of those texts , and, moreover, if it were so, the injunction by Scripture of hearing, reflecting, &c., would be purposeless.
Then the divine Self existent, indiscernible but making discernible all this, the great elements and the rest, appeared with irresistible power, dispelling the darkness. If the question as to the meaning of the Vedanta-texts were to be settled by means of Kapila's Smriti, we should have to accept the extremely undesirable conclusion that all the Smritis quoted are of no authority.
It is true that the Vedanta-texts are concerned with theoretical truth lying outside the sphere of Perception and the other means of knowledge, and that hence students possessing only a limited knowledge of the Veda require some help in order fully to make out the meaning of the Vedanta.
Through this study the student ascertains the character of the injunctions of work which form part of the Veda, and observes that all work leads only to non-permanent results; and as, on the other hand, he immediately becomes aware that the Upanishad sections which form part of the Veda which he has apprehended through reading refer to an infinite and permanent result, viz. immortality, he applies himself to the study of the Sariraka-Mimamsa, which consists in a systematic discussion of the Vedanta-texts, and has for its result the accurate determination of their sense.
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