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could not create a more serious book. Thousands of commentaries have been written on it to explain what he means.
Truth needs no commentary, but when you put it in a serious garb, naturally commentators follow, and commentators always serve the devil. It is still a great book; in spite of Badrayana's seriousness it is great. Badrayana reaches to the highest, to the ultimate, with great acumen, with great efficiency, the efficiency of a scientist.
In India a person is called an acharya, a master, only if he has written a commentary on three things: first, the one hundred and eight UPANISHADS; second, SHRIMAD BHAGAVADGITA, Krishna's celestial songs; third, the most important of all, Badrayana's BRAHMAN SUTRAS. I have never spoken about him. I was called acharya for many years, and people used to ask me if I had written all the commentaries -- the GITA, the UPANISHADS and the BRAHMAN SUTRAS. I laughed and said, "I only tell jokes, I don't write any commentaries whatsoever. My being called an acharya is a joke, don't take it seriously."
BRAHMAN SUTRA. Brahman is known and understood as God, but it is not so. Brahman has nothing to do with the Christian idea of God creating the world four thousand and four years before Jesus Christ. When I say it I think that if Badrayana had heard, perhaps even he might have laughed, he may have lost his seriousness. Brahman does not mean God; Brahman means godliness, the divineness that pervades the whole existence... the whole, the holiness of the whole.
Sutra simply means a track. You cannot speak much about Brahman; whatsoever you may say about it is only a track, a hint. But a hint can become a bridge, a track can become a bridge, and Badrayana has made a bridge within his sutras.
I love the book in spite of Badrayana's seriousness. I hate seriousness so much that I have to say "in spite of Badrayana's seriousness." I still love him for creating one of the most significant books in the world. The 'bibles' are very far away from Badrayana's SUTRAS, they don't even come close to it.
Second: Narada's BHAKTI SUTRAS. Narada is just the opposite of Badrayana, and I love to put opposites together.
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