WHAT IS BRAHMAN SUTRA FIVE Ikshaternasabdam (I..5 )?

LITERAL MEANING;--

Ikshateh: on account of seeing (thinking); Na: is not; Asabdam: not based on the scriptures Brahman (the intelligent principle) is the First Cause. Sutras 5 Ikshaternasabdam;-- 20 FACTS;--- 1-Sutras 5 to 11 refute the arguments of the Sankhyas and establish Brahman alone as the First Cause. 2-It is not possible to find room in the Vedanta texts for the nonintelligent. 3-On account of seeing i.e. thinking being attributed in the Upanishads to the First Cause, the Pradhana is not the first cause indicated by the Upanishads or not based on the scriptures. 4-Pradhana, because it is not based on scripture. Why?-- Because seeing or thinking is ascribed to the cause in the scripture. It is said that the First Cause willed or thought before creation. 5-You will find in the Chhandogya Upanishad; -- "Being only, mydear, this was in the beginning, one only without a second. It thought 'May I be many, may I grow forth.' It projected fire." 6-Aitareya Upanishad says, "The Atman willed: 'Let me project worlds'. So it projected these worlds" 7-In Prasna Upanishad; -- it is said of the person of sixteen parts. "He thought. He sent forth Prana..." There cannot be any thinking or willing in the insentient Pradhana. It is possible only if the First Cause is an intelligent being like Brahman. 8-If it is said that such a quality can be attributed to Prakriti in a secondary sense, just as redhot iron can be calledfire because it can burn, we reply, why should we ascribe creative power and Omniscience to such Prakriti which we invest with will and Omniscience in a secondary sense when we can ascribe creative power and Omniscience to Brahman Himself to whom Will and Omniscience can be ascribed in a primary sense. 9-Brahman's knowledge is permanent. He is not in need of any instruments of knowledge. He is not in need of a body.His knowledge is without any obstructions. 10- Svetasvatara Upanishad says, "He grasps without hands, moves without feet, sees without eyes, hears without ears.He knows what can be known, but no one knows Him.They call Him the first, the Great person" . 11-You cannot attribute sentiency (Chetanatva) to Pradhana even in a figurative sense, because it is said that the Creator became the soul and entered the body. How can the insentient matter (Achetana) become the sentient soul (Chetana)? Vedantic texts emphatically declare that by knowing Brahman everything else can be known. How can we know the souls by knowing matter? 12-Pradhana or matter cannot be the Sat which is described as the cause of the world, because that would be opposed to the scripture which uses the word "Ikshateh". 13- You will find in Svetasvatara Upanishad, "He, the God of all souls, is the Creator of the world". Therefore it is quite clear that Brahman and not Pradhana is the cause of this world ..In all Vedantic texts there is a uniform declaration that Chetana (consciousness) is the cause of the world. Pradhana potentially contains all forms in a seed state. The whole world exists in it in a subtle seed state in Pralaya and yet it cannot be regarded as the Creator because it is nonsentient. 14-Vedanta texts emphatically declare that an Intelligent Being willed and created this universe. You will find in Chhandogya Upanishad, "The Sat existed in the beginning. It was one without a second. It willed to become many. It created fire". 15-The argumentation of the Sankhyas that the Pradhana is allknowing because of its Sattva is inadmissible. allknowing Sattva is not preponderant in the Pradhana as the three Gunas are in a state of equipoise. If the Pradhana is even in the condition of equilibrium (Gunasamyavastha) on account of the power of knowledge residing in Sattva.. 16-Sattva, it must be littleknowing also on account of the power of retarding knowledge which resides in Rajas and Tamas. Therefore while Sattva will make it allknowing, Rajas and Tamas will make it littleknowing. This is actually a contradiction. Further a modification of Sattva which is not connected with a witnessing principle or silent Sakshi is not called knowledge.The nonintelligent Pradhana is devoid of such a principle.Hence all-knowingness cannot be ascribed to Pradhana. 17-The case of the Yogins does not apply to the point under consideration here. They attain Omniscience on account of excess of Sattva in them. There is an intelligent principle (Sakshi) in him independent of Sattva. When a Yogi attains knowledge of the past and the future on account of the grace of the Lord, you cannot deny the Eternity and Infinity of Brahman's knowledge. 18-Brahman is pure Intelligence itself, Unchangeable. Allknowingness and creation are not possible for Brahman.To objection it can be replied that Brahman can be Allknowing and creative through His illusory power,---- Maya. Just as in the case of ether we talk of ether inside a jar and ether in the sky but it is all really one ether, so also differentiation of Jiva and Isvara is only an apparent the differentiation on account of limiting adjuncts or Upadhis, viz.,body and mind. 19-The Sankhyas raise another objection. They say that fire and water also are figuratively spoken of as intelligent beings. "The fire thought 'May I be many, May I grow' and it projected water. Water thought 'May I be many, May I grow,' it projected earth" ----Chh. Up. Here water and fire are insentient objects, and yet thinking is attributed to them. 20-Even so the thinking by the Sat in the text originally quoted can also be taken figuratively in the case of Pradhana also. Hence, though Pradhana is insentient, it can yet be the First Cause.The following Sutra refutes this argument. Gaunaschet na Atmasabdat If it be said that (the word 'seeing' or thinking) is used in a secondary sense ; we say not so,because of the word Atman being applied to the cause of the world. 1-Athato Brahmajijnasa Now, therefore, the enquiry into Brahman 2-Janmadyasya yatah (Brahman is that) from which the origin etc., (i.e. the origin, sustenance and dissolution of this world proceed) 3-Sastrayonitvat The scripture being the source of right knowledge 4-Samanvayadhikaranam Brahman the main purport of all Vedantic texts. Ikshatyadyadhikaranam: Topic 5 (contd..) .........SHIVOHAM.........