Text, word-to-word Meaning, Translation & Commentary Sri Swami Sivananda BRAHMA SUTRAS TEXT, WORD-TO-WORD MEANING, TRASLATION AND COMMENTARY BY Sri Swami Sivananda Published by THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY P.O. SHIVANANDANAGAR—249 192 Tehri-Garhwal, Uttarakhand, Himalayas, India Price ] 2008 [ Rs. 230/- First Edition: 1949 Second Edition: 1977 Third Edition: 1999 Fourth Edition: 2008 [ 1,000 Copies ] ©The Divine Life Trust Society ISBN 81-7052-151-3 ES22 Published by Swami Vimalananda for The Divine Life Society, Shivanandanagar, and printed by him at the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy Press, P.O. Shivanandanagar, Distt. Tehri-Garhwal, Uttarakhand, Himalayas, India TO Sri Vyasa Bhagavan Sri Jagadguru Sankaracharya and Srimad Appayya Dikshitar SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA Born on the 8th Septem ber , 1887, in the illus trious family of Sage Appayya Dikshitar and several other renowned saints and sa vants, Sri Swami Sivananda had a natu ral flair for a life de voted to the study and prac tice of Vedanta. Added to this was an inborn eager ness to serve all and an in nate feeling of unity with all mankind. His pas sion for ser vice drew him to the medi cal ca reer; and soon he gravi tated to where he thought that his service was most needed. Malaya claimed him. He had earlier been ed it ing a health jour nal and wrote exten sively on health prob- lems. He discov ered that people needed right knowledge most of all; dis semi na tion of that knowledge he es poused as his own mission. It was divine dispen sa tion and the bless ing of God upon mankind that the doc tor of body and mind re nounced his ca reer and took to a life of renun ci ation to qualify for min is tering to the soul of man. He settled down at Rishikesh in 1924, prac tised in tense aus terities and shone as a great Yogi, saint, sage and Jivanmukta. In 1932 Swami Sivananda started the Sivanandashram. In 1936 was born The Divine Life Soci ety. In 1948 the Yoga-Vedanta For est Acad emy was or gan ised. Dis sem i na tion of spir i tual knowl edge and training of people in Yoga and Vedanta were their aim and object. In 1950 Swamiji under took a light ning tour of India and Ceylon. In 1953 Swamiji convened a ‘World Parlia ment of Reli gions’. Swamiji is the author of over 300 volumes and has dis ci ples all over the world, belong ing to all na tional i ties, reli gions and creeds. To read Swamiji’s works is to drink at the Foun tain of Wis dom Supreme. On 14th July, 1963 Swamiji entered Mahasamadhi. (7) PREFACE It need not be over-emphasised that the Bhrahma Sutras, or the Nyaya-Prasthana of the triad of Indian Philosoph ical treatises hold su preme sway over the later ra tio nal is tic and scho las tic de vel op- ments. Right from the mighty brain of Sankara down to the mas ter-in- tellect s like Sriharsha, Chitsukha and Madhusudana, the main po lemics have been oc cu pied with the task of es tab lishing the doc- trine of abso lute Monism and re futing the views con trary to it, by ap- peal to logic as well as author ity alike, which find their seeds al ready sown in the Brahma Sutras. The founder of a new reli gious and philo- soph ical school had sim ply to write a new com ment ary on the Brahma Sutras so that his view may be accepted by the mass of peo ple. Such is the author ity of the Brahma Sutras, the work of Baadarayana. Com ment ar ies there have been many on the Brahma Sutras, but either they are too short and insuf ficient to be useful for a compre - hen sive study of the Sutras, or are extremely tough and ab struse to be utilized by men of ordi nary under stand ing. This work of Swami Sivananda is of a unique type in it self, unri valled by any other. This com ment ary is neither too short to be useless, nor too verbose to be un in tel li gi ble, but fol lows a via media course, use ful to one and all, mainly the spir itual aspi rant s, who want thought, not mere word. Swamiji has got his own in imi t a ble way of writing, which is a boon to the inquis itive stu dent on the spiri tual path. All real aspi rant s af ter Truth should pos sess this book, for it is a guide-light that is cap a - ble of steering them across the sea of igno rance and doubt. Swamiji has left nothing unsaid that may be use ful to the student of the Brahma Sutras, and in addi tion has given useful infor ma tion which will not be found in other notes and com ment ar ies. The divi sion of each Pada into the rel e vant Adhikaranas mark ing at the same time the number of Sutras they con tain, the subject matter they treat of, and the accom pa niment of each Sutra by the serial number from the very begin ning is for the use and guidance of the student. An elabo - rate intro duc tion precedes the work in ad dition to a short intro duc tion and a sum mary of the dif ferent Adhikaranas preced ing each Pada. These are all a boon to the student of the Brahma Sutras for which the incom para ble Swamiji has to be eulogised. Each Sutra also con tains a word-by-word mean ing and a run ning transla tion. More need not be said than that the produc tion is a marvel ous one. Swamiji has com pleted his anno ta tions on the Prasthanatraya with his Brahma Sutras. His writ ings are too famous to neces si tate fur ther in tro duc tion. The text of the Brahma Sutras has been included herein to en- able the readers to do Svadhyaya and get them by heart for pur pose of med i ta tion. —THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY (8) lr Jwé Ü`mZ_² ~«÷mZÝX§ na_gwIX§ Ho$db§ kmZ_y{Vª ÛÝÛmVrV§ JJZgÑe§ VÎd_ñ`m{Xbú`_² Ÿ& EH§$ {ZË`§ {d_b_Mb§ gd©Yrgm{j^yV§ ^mdmVrV§ {ÌJwUa{hV§ gX²Jwé§ V§ Z_m{_Ÿ&&1Ÿ&& I pros trate my self before that Guru, the Ex is tence, devoid of the three Gunas, beyond compre hen sion, the witness of all ment al func- tions, changeless and pure, one and eternal, transcend ing the pairs of oppo sites, exp an sive like the sky, reach able through the sentences like ‘Thou art That’, the Mass of Ab so lute Wisdom. lr h[aÜ`mZ_² `§ e¡dm… g_wnmgVo {ed B{V ~«÷o{V doXmpÝVZmo ~m¡Õm ~wÕ B{V à_mUnQ>d… H$V}{V Z¡`m{`H$m…Ÿ& Ah©{ÞË`W O¡ZemgZaVm… H$_}{V _r_m§gH$m… gmo@`§ dmo {dXYmVw dmpÄN>V\$b§ Ì¡bmoŠ`ZmWmo h[a…Ÿ&&2Ÿ&& He whom the Saivas wor ship as Siva; the Vedantins as the Ab- so lute (Brahman); the Buddhists as Lord Bud dha; the logi cians, the expert s in the theory of knowledge, as the Creator; those follow ing the teachings of Jaina as the Arhat and the rit u alist s as the Sac ri fice; may that Hari, the Lord of the three worlds, give you the desired ob ject. (9) lr ì`mgÜ`mZ_² ì`mg§ {dîUwñdê$n§ H${b_bV_g… àmoÚXm{XË`Xrqá dm{gîR>§ doXemImì`gZH$a_¥qf Y_©~rO§ _hmÝV_²Ÿ& nm¡amU~«÷gyÌmÊ`aM`XW `mo ^maV§ M ñ_¥qV V§ H¥$îUÛ¡nm`Zm»`§ gwaZa{X{VO¡… ny{OV§ nyO`o@h_²Ÿ&&3Ÿ&& I wor ship the great Rishi Vyasa, who is called Krishna-dvaipayana, who is worshipped by gods, men and Asuras alike, who is the form of Vishnu, who is like the light of the rising sun to the dark ness of the impu ri ties of the age of Kali, who belongs to the family of Vasishtha, who divided the Vedas into dif ferent sec tions, who is the seed of Dharma, who wrote the Puranas, the Brahma Sutras, the Mahabharata and the Smriti. lr e§H$amMm`© Ü`mZ_² nÙmgrZ§ àemÝV§ `_{ZaV_Z“m[aVwë`à^md§ \$mbo ^ñ_m{‘>Vm^§pñ_Vé{Ma_wImå^moO{_ÝXrdamj_² & H$å~wJ«rd§ H$amä`m_{dhV{dbgËnwñVH§$ kmZ_wÐm§ dÝÚ§ Jrdm©U_w»`¡Z©VOZdaX§ ^md`o e‘>am`©_² Ÿ&&4Ÿ&& I contem plate on Sankaracharya, who is seated in Padmasana, who is tran quil, who is est ab lished in self-restraint, whose glory is like that of the enemy of Cupid, who wears the sa cred ashes shin ing on his forehead, whose smiling face resem bles the blossomed lotus, who has lo tus-like eyes, whose neck is conch-like, hold ing book in one hand and indi cat ing Jnana-mudra (with an other hand), who is adored by the foremost of gods, who gives boons to those who pros - trate to him. (10) lr hñVm_bH$mMm`©{da{MV§ lr e§H$aXo{eH$mï>H$_² {d{XVm{IbemógwYmObYo! _{hVmon{ZfËH${WVmW©{ZYoŸ& öX`o H$b`o {d_b§ MaU§! ^d e§H$aXo{eH$ _o eaU_² Ÿ&&1Ÿ&& 1. O ocean of the nect ar of illu mined knowl edge of the whole Satras! Thou hast revealed the trea sure of the meaning of the great Upanishads.