The Vedanta Sutras of Badarayana: Fourth Adhyâya. First Pâda: IV, 1, 17

Sacred Texts Hinduism Index Previous Next

The Vedanta Sutras of Badarayana, Commentary by Sankara (SBE38), tr. by George Thibaut [1896] at sacred-texts.com

17. For (there is) also (a class of good works) other than this, according to some. (There is agreement) of both (teachers) (as to the fate of those works.)

'For also one other than this,' i.e. there is also a class of good works different from works of permanent obligation, viz. those good works which are performed with a view to a fruit. Of those latter works the passage quoted above from some Sâkhâ ('His friends enter on his good works') teaches the application. And first of those works Sûtra 14 teaches that, in the same way as evil deeds, they do not cling to the doer or else are destroyed. Both teachers, Gaimini as well as Bâdarâyana, are agreed that such works, undertaken for the fulfilment of some special wish, do not contribute towards the origination of true knowledge.

Next: IV, 1, 18