ot working. The end of all things is the hidden
darkness of the eternal Godhead, unknown and never to be known."
(Quoted by Rufus Jones, _Studies in Mystical Religion_, p. 225.) It
may be doubted if Sankara's distinction between the Higher and Lower
Brahman is to be found in the Upanishads but it is probably the best
means of harmonizing the discrepancies in those works which Indian
theologians feel bound to explain away.]

[Footnote 776: Vedanta sutras, II. 1. 32-3, and Sankara's commentary,
_S.B.E._ vol. XXXIV. pp. 356-7. Ramanuja holds a similar view and it
is very common in India, _e.g._ Vishnu Pur. I. chap. 2.]

[Footnote 777: See too a remarkable passage in his comment on
Brahma-sutras, II. 1. 23. "As soon as the consciousness of
non-difference arises in us, the transmigratory state of the
individual soul and the creative quality of Brahman vanish at once,
the whole phenomenon of plurality which springs from wrong knowledge
being sublated by perfect knowledge and what becomes then of the
creation and the faults of not doing what is beneficial and the
like?"]

[Footnote 778: Although Sankara's commentary is a piece of severe
ratiocination, especially in its controversial parts, yet he holds
that the knowledge of Brahman depends not on reasoning but on
scripture and intuition. "The presentation before the mind of the
Highest Self is effected by meditation and devotion." Brah. Sut. III.
2. 24. See too his comments on I. 1. 2 and II. 1. 11.]

[Footnote 779: See Sukhtankar, _Teachings of Vedanta according to
Ramanuja_, pp. 17-19. Walleser, _Der aeltere Vedanta_, and De la
Vallee Poussin in _J.R.A.S._ 1910, p. 129.]

[Footnote 780: This term is generally rendered by qualified, that is
not absolute, Monism. But South Indian scholars give a slightly
different explanation and maintain that it is equivalent to
_Visishtayor advaitam_ or the identity of the two qualified
(_visishta_) conditions of Brahman. Brahman is qualified by _cit_ and
_acit_, souls and matter, which stand to him in the relation of
attributes. The two conditions are _Karyavastha_ or period of cosmic
manifestation in which _cit_ and _acit_ are manifest and
_Karanavastha_ or period of cosmic dissolution, when they exist only
in a subtle state within Brahman. These two conditions are not
different (_advaitam_). See Srinivas Iyengar, _J.R.A.S._ 1912, p. 1073
and also _Sri Ramanujacarya: His Philosophy_ by Rajagopalacharyar.]

[Footnote 781: Compare th