English translation of T. V. Kapali Sastry's commentary on Vasishtha Ganapati Muni's Sat-darshana - sanskrit version of Sri Ramana's 'Ulladu Narpadu' in Tamil.
T. V. Kapali Sastry's Sat-Darshana Bhashya (commentary) on Vasishtha Ganapati Muni's सद्दर्शनम् - a Sanskrit version of Sri Ramana's 'Ulladu Narpadu' in Tamil
सर्वैनिदानं जगतोऽहमश्च वाच्यः प्रभुः कश्चिदपारशक्तिः। चित्रेऽत्र लोक्यं च विलोकिता च पटः प्रकाशोऽप्यभवत्स एकः॥ Of myself and the world All the cause admit-a Lord of limitless power. In this world-picture, the canvas, the light, The seer and the seen-all are He, the One. We have commented on the first two verses of benediction. This verse really begins the Shastra. The cause of the world and myself is admitted by all as a Lord of limitless power. The world is what I see around me, the object of sense-perception. Myself is the apparently conscient, self-evident ’I’ called the jiva, the living being distinguished by personal identity. Both the world and myself are in perpetual change and this fact presupposes a cause which must be of such an illimitable power that this vast universe and myself and other beings are formed by it, live, move, and have their being in it. This cause is the Lord God, the Omnipotent. Then, in order that the triple truth of God, world and soul may not be taken to imply a denial of non-duality or advaita, the oneness of all existence, the analogy of artist and picture is given. This world of name and form is the picture, God is the supreme artist that draws the picture possessed of the limitless skill and power needed for it. He has also the capacity to see his own picture of the world, hence he is the seer. All the materials needed for a picture are different from the human artist while the skill and the sight alone are his, inherent in him and inseparable from him. But in the case of God, the Divine artist that creates the world-picture, the material for the world is inherent in Him. “All are He’, the canvas on which the picture of the world is painted, the picture itself which is the world of name and form and the light without which one cannot see even though one has the eye. Thus He, the one God is also the many and nothing is there which is not ’He’. Therefore the one Real, the Brahman of limitless power, becomes the subject, the object and the instruments and all these are various modes of His existence. He is the material as well as the efficient cause of all, of the world jagat as well as of the soul the jiva. It is in this sense that the Upanishad proclaims "All this is verily Brahman”. By this living self may I differentiate existence into name and form." If it is a fact that it is the One supreme existence that has become the triple truth of God, world and soul, how is it that the One Supreme Reality is not understood as such and that we are faced with the many?
सर्वैनिदानं जगतोऽहमश्च वाच्यः प्रभुः कश्चिदपारशक्तिः। चित्रेऽत्र लोक्यं च विलोकिता च पटः प्रकाशोऽप्यभवत्स एकः॥
Of myself and the world All the cause admit-a Lord of limitless power. In this world-picture, the canvas, the light, The seer and the seen-all are He, the One.
We have commented on the first two verses of benediction. This verse really begins the Shastra.
The cause of the world and myself is admitted by all as a Lord of limitless power. The world is what I see around me, the object of sense-perception. Myself is the apparently conscient, self-evident ’I’ called the jiva, the living being distinguished by personal identity. Both the world and myself are in perpetual change and this fact presupposes a cause which must be of such an illimitable power that this vast universe and myself and other beings are formed by it, live, move, and have their being in it. This cause is the Lord God, the Omnipotent. Then, in order that the triple truth of God, world and soul may not be taken to imply a denial of non-duality or advaita, the oneness of all existence, the analogy of artist and picture is given. This world of name and form is the picture, God is the supreme artist that draws the picture possessed of the limitless skill and power needed for it.
He has also the capacity to see his own picture of the world, hence he is the seer. All the materials needed for a picture are different from the human artist while the skill and the sight alone are his, inherent in him and inseparable from him. But in the case of God, the Divine artist that creates the world-picture, the material for the world is inherent in Him. “All are He’, the canvas on which the picture of the world is painted, the picture itself which is the world of name and form and the light without which one cannot see even though one has the eye. Thus He, the one God is also the many and nothing is there which is not ’He’. Therefore the one Real, the Brahman of limitless power, becomes the subject, the object and the instruments and all these are various modes of His existence. He is the material as well as the efficient cause of all, of the world jagat as well as of the soul the jiva. It is in this sense that the Upanishad proclaims "All this is verily Brahman”. By this living self may I differentiate existence into name and form."
If it is a fact that it is the One supreme existence that has become the triple truth of God, world and soul, how is it that the One Supreme Reality is not understood as such and that we are faced with the many?
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