heaven, the earth, &c.
are woven (Mu/nd/. Up. II, 2, 5) is Brahman.--Adhik. II (8, 9) shows
that the bhuman referred to in Ch. Up. VII, 23 is Brahman.--Adhik. III
(10-12) teaches that the Imperishable in which, according to B/ri/. Up.
III, 8, 8, the ether is woven is Brahman.--Adhik. IV (13) decides that
the highest person who is to be meditated upon with the syllable Om,
according to Pra/s/na Up. V, 5, is not the lower but the higher
Brahman.--According to Ramanuja the two alternatives are Brahman and
Brahma (jivasamash/t/irupoz/nd/adhipatis /k/aturmukha/h/).--Adhik. V and
VI (comprising, according to /S/a@nkara, Sutras l4-2l) discuss the
question whether the small ether within the lotus of the heart mentioned
in Ch. Up. VIII, 1 is the elemental ether or the individual soul or
Brahman; the last alternative being finally adopted. In favour of the
second alternative the purvapakshin pleads the two passages Ch. Up.
VIII, 3, 4 and VIII, 12, 3, about the serene being (samprasada); for by
the latter the individual soul only can be understood, and in the
chapter, of which the latter passage forms part, there are ascribed to
it the same qualities (viz. freeness from sin, old age, death, &c.) that
were predicated in VIII, 1, of the small ether within the heart.--But
the reply to this is, that the second passage refers not to the
(ordinary) individual soul but to the soul in that state where its true
nature has become manifest, i.e. in which it is Brahman; so that the
subject of the passage is in reality not the so-called individual soul
but Brahman. And in the former of the two passages the soul is mentioned
not on its own account, but merely for the purpose of intimating that
the highest Self is the cause through which the individual soul
manifests itself in its true nature.--What Ramanuja understands by the
avirbhava of the soul will appear from the remarks on IV, 4.

The two next Sutras (22, 23) constitute, according to /S/a@nkara, a new
adhikara/n/a (VII), proving that he 'after whom everything shines, by
whose light all this is lighted' (Ka/th/a Up. II, 5, 15) is not some
material luminous body, but Brahman itself.--According to Ramanuja the
two Sutras do not start a new topic, but merely furnish some further
arguments strengthening the conclusion arrived at in the preceding
Sutras.[9]

Adhik. VIII (24, 25) decides that the person of the size of a thumb
mentioned in Ka/th/a Up. II, 4, 12 is not the individual soul but
B