bhogamātrasāmyaliṅgācca ..4.4.21..

SUTRA IV. 4. 21.

 

भोगमात्रसाम्यलिङ्गाच्च॥४.४.२१॥

bhogamātrasāmyaliṅgācca ..4.4.21..

 

.. Bhoga, enjoyment. Matra, only, … Samya, equality, … Lingat, on account of indication, .. Cha, only. .. Na, not This word is to be read into the aphorism by drawing it from IV., 4. 18.

 

21. The similarity of the Jiva with Brahman is in the matter of enjoyment only: because of the indication of the Shruti. — 558.

 

COMMENTARY

 

The word Cha «and» has the force of only here. The word ‘not’ is to be read into the Sutra, from Sutra IV., 4. 18: and though its Anuvritti was not current in the two Sutras immediately following it, it is current in it by the maxim of «frog-jump». The Taittiriya Upanishad, II., 1. 1. «He reaches all objects of desires together with (Saha) the all-knowing Brahman», indicates that the Mukta is equal to God in matters of enjoyment only: because from the indicatory hint given there, the sense of the passage is not that the Mukta is essentially and absolutely equal to the Lord.

In a previous Sutra (II, 3. 19) it has been proved that the soul is really and not metaphorically atomic, and so this objection that the soul is all-pervading has already been answered.

In that Sutra, the essential form of the soul is determined, in the present Sutra, the author of the treatise shows that the Jiva and Brahman have equality only in the matter of enjoyment, but they are different in their essential nature — the one is atomic, the other is all-pervading, etc. This inequality, moreover, is real and not fictitious.

Adhikarana XI — The Mukta is eternally free

and never returns

 

Now the author commences the topic that the Mukta is everywhere in the proximity of Brahman.

Vishaya: All the texts describing the attainment of the world of the Lord by the free, are Vishaya texts here.

Doubt: There arises this doubt: Is this Mukti, which consists in roaching the Lord, permanent or temporal?

Purvapaksha: Since this release consists in .reaching a particular world or Loka, and there is no distinction between Lokas, so far as their phenomenal nature is concerned, whether it be Svarga-Loka or Vaikuntha-Loka; and from every Loka there is a possibility of fall; so the Mukti is not eternal.

Siddhanta: This view is refuted in the next Sutra.