गोविन्द भाष्य (श्रील बलदेव विद्याभूषण - अचिन्त्यभेदाभेद वेदान्त ब्रह्मसूत्र भाष्य सटीक)

the universe where they live." The word yataḥ means "from whom", and it refers to the Supreme Brahman who manifested the universe from His inconceivable potency. This is the Brahman about whom one should inquire. The words bhūma and ātmā both mean "all pervading". These words refer primarily to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This will be elaborately explained in the Bhūmādhikaraṇa (1.3.7) and Vākyānvayādhikaraṇa (1.4.19). The word "Brahman" in particular means "He who possesses boundless exalted qualitites." Brahman, then, refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and this is clearly confirmed in the following words of śruti-śāstra: atha kasmād ucyate brahmeti bṛhanto by asmin guṇāḥ "From whom has this universe become manifest? From Brahman, who possesses an abundance of exalted transcendental qualities." Brahman primarily refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and only secondarily to the individual spirit souls, who manifest in small degree the spiritual qualitites of the Supreme Lord. In this way the individual spirit souls may be called Brahman, just as the royal title may be given not only to the king, but also to his associates and subordinates. Therefore, the individual spirit souls, who are all suffering the three-fold miseries of material life, should, in order to attain ultimate liberation, inquire about the Supreme Brahman, who is very merciful towards whose who take shelter of Him. For these reasons it should be understood that the Supreme Brahman, the Personality of Godhead is the object of inquiry in this Vedānta-sūtra. This is not an imaginary description of Brahman's qualities. This is the truth about Brahman. The word jijñāsā means "the desire to know." Knowledge is of two kinds: 1. Parokṣa (knowledge gathered from sources other than the senses e.g. logic, knowledge obtained from authority, etc.) and 2. Aparokṣa (knowledge gathered by the senses). An example of these two kinds of knowledge may be seen in the following quotation from the śruti-śāstra: vijñāya prajñāṁ kurvīta "After learning about the Supreme Personality of Godhead one should become able to directly see Him in the trance of meditation." Parokṣa knowledge helps bring us closer to the Supreme Brahman, and aparokṣa knowledge manifests the Supreme Lord before us. If one understands his real identity as spirit soul, that is certainly very helpful in understanding Brahman, but that does not mean that the individual soul is the same as Brahman. The individual spirit soul is always different from Brahman, and even after liberation He remains eternally different from the Supreme Brahman. The difference between the individual soul and Brahman is described in sūtras