Adhikarana 2

The Origin of Everything

 Sutra 2

 janmady asya yatah

    janma - birth; adi - beginning with; asya - of that; yatah - from whom. 

    Brahman is He from whom everything emanates.*

  Purport by Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana

The word janmadi is a tad-guna-samvijnana-bahuvrihi-samasa, and it should interpreted to mean

"creation, maintenance, and destruction." The word asya means "of this material universe with fourteen

planetary systems, which is inhabitated by various creatures from the demigod Brahma down to the

lowest unmoving blade of grass, who all enjoy and suffer the results of their various fruitive actions

(karma), and who cannot understand the astonishing structure of the universe where they live." The

word yatah means "from whom", and it refers to the Supreme Brahman who manifested the universe

from His inconceivable potency. This is the Brahman about whom one should inquire.

The words bhuma and atma both mean "all pervading". These words refer primarily to the Supreme

Personality of Godhead. This will be elaborately explained in the  BhumAdhikarana  (1.3.7) and

VakyanvayAdhikarana  (1.4.19). The word "Brahman" in particular means "He who possesses

boundless exalted qualitites." Brahman, then, refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and this is

clearly confirmed in the following words of sruti-sastra:

    atha kasmad ucyate brahmeti brhanto by asmin gunah

"From whom has this universe become manifest? From Brahman, who possesses an abundance of

exalted transcendental qualities."

    Brahman primarily refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and only secondarily to the

individual spirit souls, who manifest in small degree the spiritual qualitites of the Supreme Lord. In this

way the individual spirit souls may be called Brahman, just as the royal title may be given not only to

the king, but also to his associates and subordinates. Therefore, the individual spirit souls, who are all

suffering the three-fold miseries of material life, should, in order to attain ultimate liberation, inquire

about the Supreme Brahman, who is very merciful towards whose who take shelter of Him. For these

reasons it should be understood that the Supreme Brahman, the Personality of Godhead is the object of

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inquiry in this Vedanta-sutra. This is not an imaginary description of Brahman's qualities. This is the

truth about Brahman.

The word jijnasa means "the desire to know." Knowledge is of two kinds: 1. Paroksa (knowledge

gathered from sources other than the senses e.g. logic, knowledge obtained from authority, etc.) and 2.

Aparoksa (knowledge gathered by the senses). An example of these two kinds of knowledge may be

seen in the following quotation from the sruti-sastra:

 vijnaya prajnam kurvita

"After learning about the Supreme Personality of Godhead one should become able to directly see Him

in the trance of meditation."

    Paroksa knowledge helps bring us closer to the Supreme Brahman, and aparoksa knowledge

manifests the Supreme Lord before us.

If one understands his real identity as spirit soul, that is certainly very helpful in understanding

Brahman, but that does not mean that the individual soul is the same as Brahman. The individual spirit

soul is always different from Brahman, and even after liberation He remains eternally different from the

Supreme Brahman. The difference between the individual soul and Brahman is described in sutras

1.1.16, 1.1.17, 1.3.5, 1.3.21, and 1.3.41.

The Vedic literature gives the following guidelines for the interpretation of obscure passages:

 upakramopasamharav

abhyaso 'purvata-phalam artha-vadopapatti ca

liìgam tatparya-nirnaye

    "The upakrama (beginning), upasamhara (ending), abhyasa (what is repeated again and again),

apurvata  (what is unique and novel),  phalam  (the general purpose of the book),  artha-vada  (the

author's statement of his own intention), and upapatti (appropriateness) are the factors to consider in

interpretation of obscure passages."

If we apply these criteria to the  sruti-sastra, we will clearly see that the Supreme Personality of

Godhead and the individual spirit soul are described here as two distinct entities.

Let us analyze the following passage from Svetasvatara Upanisad (4.6-7) in the light of these six

criteria.

 dva suparna sayuja sakhaya

samanam vrksam parisasvajate tayor anyah pippalam svadv atty

anasnann anyo 'bhicakasiti

"The individual spirit-soul and the Supersoul, Personality of Godhead, are like two friendly birds sitting

on the same tree. One of the birds (the individual atomic soul) is eating the fruit of the tree (the sense-

gratification afforded to the material body), and the other bird (the Supersoul) is not trying to eat these

fruits, but is simply watching His friend.

 samane vrkse puruso nimagno

'nisaya socati muhyamanah justam yada pasyati anyam isam

asya mahimanam iti vita-sokah

"Although the two birds are on the same tree, the eating bird is fully engrossed with anxiety and

moroseness as the enjoyer of the fruits of the tree. But if in some way or other he turns his face to his

friend who is the Lord and knows His glories, at once the suffering bird becomes free from all

anxieties."

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    In this passage the upakrama (beginning) is dva suparna (two birds); the upasamhara (ending)

is anyam isam (the other person, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead); the abhyasa (repeated

feature) is the word anya (the other person), as in the phrases tayor anyo 'snan (the other person does

not eat) and anyam isam ( He sees the other person, who is the Supreme Lord); the apurvata (unique

feature) is the difference between the Supreme Lord and the individual spirit soul, which could never

have been understood without the revelation of the Vedic scripture; the phalam (general purpose of the

passage) is vita-sokah (the individual spirit soul becomes free from suffering by seeing the Lord); the

artha-vada (the author's statement of his own intention) is mahimanam eti (one who understands the

Supeme Lord becomes glorious) and the upapatti (appropriateness) is anyo 'nasan (the other person,

the Supreme Lord, does not eat the fruits of material happiness and distress).

 By analyzing this passage and other passages from Vedic literatures, one may clearly understand the

difference between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the individual spirit soul.

At this point someone may raise the following objection: Is it not true that when a scripture teaches

something that had not been known to its readers, then it is useful, and if when a scripture simply

repeats what its readers already know, it simply wastes time uselessly? People in general think they are

different from the Supreme Brahman, and therefore if the scripture were to teach them something new

it would have to be that the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the indivdual spirit souls are

completely identical. For this reason it should be understood that the individual spirit souls are identical

with Brahman.

To this objection I reply: This view is not supported by the words of the Vedic scriptures. For example

the Svetasvatara Upanisad (1.6) states:

 prthag-atmanam preritam ca matva

justas tatas tenamrtatvam eti

"When one understands that the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the individual spirit souls are

eternally distinct entities, then he may become qualified for liberation, and live eternally in the spiritual

world."

The impersonalist conception of the identity of the individual and the Supreme is a preposterous

phantasmagoria, like the horn of a rabbit. It has no reference to reality, and it is completely rejected by

the people in general. They do not accept it. Those few texts of the Upanisads that apparently teach the

impersonalist doctrine, are interpreted in a personalist way by the author, Vyasadeva himself. This will

be described later on in Sutra 1.1.30.