The Brahma Sutra · Book 4: The Fruit

The book opens with a single question: to realize Brahman, is worship to be performed once, or again and again?

Sutra 4.1.1 answers that repetition is necessary, because in the shruti, the revealed scripture, the instruction is given asakrit, again and again. Worship is not accomplished by one effort; steady, unbroken practice is required. In sutra 4.1.2, the linga, the other supporting marks within the shruti, point the same way.

The worship of Brahman is to be carried on with the sense “I am Brahman.” The sense “That is Brahman” is set aside. The shruti itself approaches Brahman in the first way and leads the student to grasp it in the same way.

This is the practical form of the great sayings (mahavakyas) “तत्त्वमसि” (Chandogya 6.8.7) and “अहं ब्रह्मास्मि” (Brihadaranyaka 1.4.10). You see Brahman as one with your own true nature. It is never an object standing outside you.

A pratika is a support for worship, such as a name or an emblem. “न प्रतीके”: worship of Brahman as one’s own self cannot rest on a symbol, because the symbol is not itself “that,” which is Brahman.

The distinction is fine. You may superimpose the vision of Brahman onto a symbol, yet the worshiper cannot take the symbol to be his own self. The next sutras prescribe exactly this worship-through-a-symbol, and the highest realization does not lie in the symbol.

Sutra 4.1.5: the vision of Brahman should be superimposed onto a support, because doing so elevates the object of worship; Brahman itself is not lowered. It is a method for raising the thing worshiped. Sutra 4.1.6: superimposing the idea of deities such as Aditya, the sun, onto the limbs of the yajna, the fire-rite, is fitting, because it makes the rite coherent.

Sutra 4.1.7: worship should be done seated, because stability is possible only in sitting. Sutra 4.1.8: meditation too bears fruit only when seated. Sutra 4.1.9: stillness is called for, and this is why a posture is prescribed. Sutra 4.1.10: the works of smriti say the same. Sutra 4.1.11: wherever the mind settles into one-pointedness, that place is right; on this matter no particular location is fixed.

A posture is necessary. No single fixed place is required. Wherever concentration comes easily, worship is accomplished there.

Textual context: the Patanjali Yoga Sutras 2.46-48 (on posture).

“आ प्रायणात्” means until the moment of death. Worship should stay unbroken to the very last breath.

The state of mind at the final moment decides the course to come. The Gita’s line “यं यं वापि स्मरन्भावम्” (8.6) rests on this very principle.

The central question here is what happens to a person’s stored-up karma once the knowledge of Brahman arises.

Sutra 4.1.13: once knowledge is attained, future sin no longer clings, it does not stick to the jiva, and past sin is destroyed. The shruti itself declares this. Sutra 4.1.14: in the same way, good karma too falls away, unattached, at the fall of the body.

Sutra 4.1.15: yet only the karma that has not yet begun to give its result, the anarabdha karma, is destroyed. Prarabdha has to be lived through, even by the knower, right up to the body’s end. Sutra 4.1.16: rites such as the agnihotra, being aids to knowledge, serve that same end. Sutra 4.1.17: some branches of the Veda say other karma is worn away in this way as well. Sutra 4.1.18: “what is done through knowledge” is the phrase of the shruti. Sutra 4.1.19: the remaining karma wears away by being partly lived through, and after that the jiva comes to fullness in Brahman.

Karma is of three kinds: sanchita (the accumulated store), prarabdha (the karma that has already set to work giving its fruit), and kriyamana (what is being done in the present). Knowledge destroys the sanchita and the kriyamana still to come. Prarabdha wears away only by being lived through, for the knower as much as for anyone.

Textual context: this is the ground of the one liberated while living. The knower stays in the body because prarabdha remains; the body does not drop the instant knowledge arrives.

This part sets out the gradual withdrawal of the senses at the moment the body is left.

Sutra 4.2.1: first the organ of speech merges into the mind, and both the shruti’s own showing and its wording say so. Sutra 4.2.2: by the same sequence, the remaining senses merge into the mind as well. Sutra 4.2.3: after that the mind merges into breath. Sutra 4.2.4: breath merges into the jiva, the presiding self. Sutra 4.2.5: the jiva then departs together with the subtle elements. Sutra 4.2.6: this is not a departure with any single element; it is with the subtle portion of them all.

The Upanishads describe this process of leaving the body in fine detail, the senses growing quiet one after another.

Textual context: Chandogya 6.8.6, Brihadaranyaka 4.4.1-2.

Sutra 4.2.7: this sequence is the same for the knower and the ignorant alike, up to the start of the onward course. The knower reaches immortality without the subtle body being burned away. Sutra 4.2.8: this immortality is relative, lasting until the merging into Brahman at the dissolution, because up to that point samsara is still spoken of. Sutra 4.2.9: the subtle body is subtle in measure, and it is perceived to be so. Sutra 4.2.10: the falling of the gross body does not crush the subtle body. Sutra 4.2.11: it is because this subtle body keeps departing that a dead body retains some warmth for a time.

Sutra 4.2.12: someone may object that the shruti forbids any going-out of the knower’s breaths. Badarayana answers that it does not; that denial concerns only a departure from the body. Sutra 4.2.13: in some recensions this is stated plainly. Sutra 4.2.14: smriti supports it too. Sutra 4.2.15: the knower’s senses and elements merge into the supreme reality, and the shruti says exactly this. Sutra 4.2.16: there no division remains, and this stands proved by the words of the shruti.

Sutra 4.2.17 is a long one. The dwelling-place of the jiva, the heart, has its tip set alight; by that light the door is illumined; and by the power of knowledge, together with the recollection of the course to be traveled, the jiva, favored by the deity of the heart, goes out through that one special channel among the more than a hundred, the brahma-nadi. Sutra 4.2.18: it then follows the rays of the sun. Sutra 4.2.19: someone may ask what becomes of one who dies at night; the answer is that this makes no difference, because the link between channel and ray holds by day and by night alike. Sutra 4.2.20: this link lasts as long as the body lasts, and the shruti shows it.

Sutra 4.2.21: for this reason, even when one dies in the southern half of the year, the knower’s course runs by the path of the gods. Sutra 4.2.22: the rule about the halves of the year given in smriti applies to yogis, to those who perform sacrificial works.

This scheme of a hundred channels and one became a foundation of the yoga tradition. The brahma-nadi is the upward-running channel through which the knower’s breath departs.

Textual context: Chandogya 8.6.6, “शतं चैका च हृदयस्य नाड्यः।” One upward-running channel among the hundred.

The main subject of this part is the path of the gods, the devayana, the course the knower takes after leaving the body. Chandogya 5.10 describes two paths, the devayana and the pitriyana. Knowers travel by the devayana.

Sutra 4.3.1: this path begins with archi, the flame, because that is how the shruti names it. The sequence runs: the flame, the day, the bright fortnight, the northern half of the year, the year, the sun, the moon, the lightning, and at the last Brahmaloka. Sutra 4.3.2: the stage of Vayu, the wind, also belongs in this sequence, from the general and specific statements. Sutra 4.3.3: after the lightning comes the stage of Varuna and the rest, by connection. Sutra 4.3.4: these stages are conducting powers, each one carrying the jiva on to the next, as their marks make clear. Sutra 4.3.5: should anyone say the jiva cannot travel of itself, these presiding deities are the ones who carry it. Sutra 4.3.6: from the stage of lightning onward, it is the being of lightning who conducts the journey, and the shruti says so.

Each stage is presided over by a single deity, and this is the graded path of the northern course.

Textual context: Chandogya 4.15.5, 5.10.1-2. Brihadaranyaka 6.2.15.

The question here is whether the place the knower reaches, traveling by the path of the gods, is the effect-Brahman (qualified, Hiranyagarbha) or the cause-Brahman (unqualified, the absolute).

Sutra 4.3.7: the teacher Badari holds that it is the effect-Brahman, because the journey makes sense only that far; travel is possible only up to a world with qualities. Sutra 4.3.8: the shruti describes it with qualifying marks, which points the same way. Sutra 4.3.9: because it stands near the supreme, it is spoken of as the supreme Brahman. Sutra 4.3.10: when the state of the effect comes to an end, the jiva, together with the presider of that world, reaches the supreme Brahman. This is the ground of gradual liberation.

Sutra 4.3.11: smriti supports this too. Sutra 4.3.12: the teacher Jaimini holds that the journey reaches the supreme Brahman itself, because in the shruti the word Brahman is used in its primary sense. Sutra 4.3.13: the shruti’s own showing agrees. Sutra 4.3.14: the knower forms no intention of reaching the effect-Brahman; his aim is the supreme Brahman alone.

Here lies the discernment between gradual liberation and immediate liberation. Shankara’s position is that liberation is immediate, in this very body, the moment knowledge arises, and this is living liberation. For the worshiper of the qualified Brahman, though, there is the path of gradual liberation by way of Brahmaloka. Badarayana lays out both situations.

Sutra 4.3.15: Badarayana holds that those who contemplate the unqualified Brahman without leaning on a symbol are the ones the presiding being carries to the supreme Brahman. A difficulty arises on either side, so the course matches the kind of worship, the kratu, undertaken. Sutra 4.3.16: the shruti also shows a real distinction among these worshipers.

The knower who contemplates the unqualified Brahman moves straight toward the supreme Brahman; the worshiper of a symbol moves by the road of Brahmaloka.

This part now begins, and it is the closing section of the whole text. Here Badarayana sets out the experience and the nature of the liberated jiva.

Sutra 4.4.1: on reaching Brahman, the jiva emerges in its own true nature, because the shruti uses the word “स्वेन,” meaning “in its own form.” Nothing new is gained; the nature that was already there simply comes to light. Sutra 4.4.2: this is the liberated state, because that is the shruti’s own declaration. Sutra 4.4.3: here, by the context, it is the self as one with Brahman that is meant. Sutra 4.4.4: this state is seen as one of non-division, undivided from the supreme reality.

This is the purest statement of Advaita Vedanta. In liberation nothing is added; only ignorance is removed. The shining-forth of one’s own true nature is itself liberation.

Textual context: Chandogya 8.3.4, “एष सम्प्रसादोऽस्माच्छरीरात् समुत्थाय परं ज्योतिः उपसम्पद्य स्वेन रूपेणाभिनिष्पद्यते।”

Three teachers give their views here. Sutra 4.4.5: the teacher Jaimini holds that the liberated jiva is endowed with divine attributes such as omniscience, because the shruti presents them this way. Sutra 4.4.6: the teacher Audulomi holds that it is pure consciousness alone (chiti-matra), because that is its very nature. Sutra 4.4.7: Badarayana’s ruling is that there is no conflict between the two views, because the shruti presents the attributes and also the prior reality of the conscious nature.

Two opposite views stand here, one holding the liberated jiva to have attributes and one holding it to be pure consciousness alone, and Badarayana’s ruling brings the two together.

Sutra 4.4.8: the desires of the liberated jiva are fulfilled by intention alone, by sankalpa, and the shruti offers the proof. Sutra 4.4.9: for this same reason it has no other master; it is free.

The liberated jiva is undivided from the supreme reality, and so its very intention is its fullness.

Whether the liberated jiva has a body or not is the question weighed here.

Sutra 4.4.10: the teacher Badari holds that there is no body. Sutra 4.4.11: the teacher Jaimini holds that a body is possible, because the shruti records an option. Sutra 4.4.12: Badarayana’s ruling is that both are possible, of either kind, just as the twelve-day sacrifice can be performed in two ways. Sutra 4.4.13: when there is no body, the liberated one’s state is like that of dream, and this makes sense. Sutra 4.4.14: when there is a body, the state is like that of waking.

This is the difference between living liberation, which is liberation while the body remains, and disembodied liberation, which is liberation after the body falls. Badarayana accepts both states.

Sutra 4.4.15: as a single lamp can enter many wicks at once, so the liberated jiva can, by intention, enter many bodies at once, and the shruti shows it. Sutra 4.4.16: its undivided nature comes to light only in dependence on one of two conditions, deep sleep or dissolution.

This concerns the special powers, and it is heard of in many places in the tradition of the saints.

Sutra 4.4.17 is the root statement. “जगद्-व्यापार-वर्जम्”: the liberated jiva gains a majesty equal to Brahman’s, yet the running of the world, its creation, its maintenance, and its dissolution, does not lie within its power. That is the work of Ishvara alone.

This is Badarayana’s fine doctrine. The liberated jiva is full with the experience of the supreme reality, and it is not the maker of the world.

Sutra 4.4.18: this holds by the context as well, and because the liberated jiva is not present at creation. Sutra 4.4.19: should anyone say there is a direct teaching to the contrary, that teaching concerns Ishvara, who abides in the sphere of authority, and not the liberated jiva. Sutra 4.4.20: the liberated jiva stands beyond change, and the shruti shows it. Sutra 4.4.21: the shruti states its condition through both direct statement and inference. Sutra 4.4.22: the liberated one shares with Ishvara in enjoyment alone; the full exercise of lordly power stays beyond it.

Badarayana rejects any notion of the liberated jiva as a lesser Ishvara. The creator is the one Ishvara alone. Liberated jivas become undivided in the experience of the supreme reality, and they are not the doers of the world’s work.

This is the last sutra of the whole text. Badarayana closes with “अनावृत्तिः शब्दात्,” meaning “by the word of the shruti, there is no return,” and, following the rule that marks a text’s end, he doubles the final sutra: “अनावृत्तिः शब्दादनावृत्तिः शब्दात्।”

Two words hold the gist of the whole text. “अनावृत्ति,” meaning no return. After merging into Brahman there is no coming back, no rebirth, no wheel of samsara.

And “शब्दात्,” meaning this is the word of the shruti. However much reasoning Badarayana brought to bear across his entire text, at the end he rests on the authority of the shruti alone. This is the foundation of his philosophy.

Liberation from the wheel of samsara, the final rest. Badarayana’s journey of five hundred and fifty-five sutras comes to its completion on this one word, “अनावृत्ति।”

Textual context: Chandogya 4.15.6, Brihadaranyaka 6.2.15, Mundaka 3.2.6 (“न च पुनरावर्तते”). The shruti states this plainly.