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Brahma Sutras: Text, Word-to-Word Meaning, Translation, and Commentary

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BRAHMA SUTRAS - Text, Word-to-Word Meaning, Translation and Commentary by Swami Sivananda. Shivanandanagar, UP, Himalayas: The Divine Life Society, 1999 (1949). Hardback, xxxi + 671 pages. ISBN 8170521513

No mastery of Vedanta is considered complete without a careful study of the three texts that stand as the three starting points: the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Brahma Sutras, a text traditionally attributed to Badarayana in which the teachings of Vedanta are set forth in a systematic and logical order.

The Brahma Sutras is a difficult but important scripture of Vedanta. It consists of 555 brief aphorisms which give the essence of the arguments on a topic and which are rich with implication. These aphorisms will always be found interspersed throughout a lengthy and detailed commentary, of which the most important for Advaitins is the Shankara Bhasya, since it would be quite impossible to understand them without some sort of commentary.

The reason for condensing Advaita into 555 aphorisms was so that the entire system could be memorized and carried in the head. Here is the first aphorism, following which several pages of commentary are required to draw out the full implications:

Athato Brahmajijnasa

Now, therefore, the inquiry into Brahman.

I have found Swami Sivananda's to be the most approachable edition of the Brahma Sutras. He has obviously done his best to make this difficult text as accessible and intelligible as he could.

The book is in dialogue form and consists in an attempt to refute the dualistic arguments of rival Vedic interpreters. Detailed arguments by these rivals of Advaita are cited. These attacks are then in turn analyzed, point-by-point and often in great detail, and refuted by the commentator who sees it as his task to establish the correctness of the Advaitic position.

For other editions see my Listmania List: BRAHMA SUTRAS.

As a yoga teacher since 1980,
Vedanta always came to my ears as: This is it.
His Holiness swami Sivananda
wrote this: Brahma Sutra's, commentary.
And now I can understand this difficult literature.
But also: I found out, it is not my school of thought.
Marvelous book,but only for advanced yogi's
or philosofer's.
Thanks

Herman Gielen
The Netherlands.