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But then, one might argue, if Brahman is in fact the cause of this observable world, one should be able to draw an inference from the world, the effect, regarding Brahman as cause: "Those who stand by God as cause rely on this very inference alone for establishing the existence etc. of God as distinguished from a transmigrating soul."
42 Sankara rejects this inference, though he has no problem with its conclusion. He insists that there is a unique textual basis for saving knowledge; UMS I.1.2 does not mean that Brahman is a source that can be inferred; rather, it tells us that the word "Brahman" is designated to the useful name of what we learn from the upanisadic texts. In other words, the sutra reinforces our dependence on the upanisads: |
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The sutras are meant for stringing together the flowers of the sentences of the upanisads; for it is precisely the sentences of the upanisads that are referred to in these sutras. The realization of Brahman is accomplished on the basis of a firm conviction arising from deliberation on the texts and their meanings; it is not accomplished on the basis of other means of knowledge such as inference, etc.43 |
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The commitment of Advaita is to textual knowledge of Brahman, and not merely to conclusions one might draw on the basis of texts, or in some other fashion. Reasoning, Sankara adds, can help after one has learned of the source from the upanisads, but not before, because "Brahman's relation with anything cannot be grasped, since it is outside the range of sense-perception."44 All inferences which argue from the effect to the cause are unreliable and inappropriate circumventions of the required engagement in the Text. |
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In place of an inference available to reason as the basis for sure knowledge, Taittiriya Upanisad 3.6, which decisively excludes alternative views about the source of the world and establishes that all comes from and returns to Brahman ("bliss"), is identified as the upanisadic text the sutra has in mind: "From bliss certainly all these beings originate; they live by bliss after being born; and towards bliss they proceed, and into bliss they get merged." Inference is thus set firmly within the realm of textual expertise, where one learns first to recognize what texts mean |
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