Brahma Sutras – According to Shankara 1-3-12

Topic 12 - The Ākāśa which reveals names and forms is Brahman

Sutra 1,3.41

आकाशोऽर्थान्तरत्वादिव्यपदेशात् ॥ ४१॥

ākāśo'rthāntaratvādivyapadeśāt || 41 ||

ākāśaḥ—Ākāśa; arthāntaratvādi-vyapadeśāt—because it is declared to be something different etc.

41. Ākāśa (is Brahman) because it is declared to be something different etc. (from names and forms and yet their revealer).

“That which is called Ākāśa is the revealer of all names and forms. That within which these names and forms are is Brahman, the immortal, the Self” (Chh. 8.14.1).

Here ‘Ākāśa’ is Brahman. Why?

Because names and forms are said to be within this Ākāśa, which is therefore different from these. In this phenomenal world everything is conditioned by name and form, and Brahman alone is beyond them.

Ākāśa is said to be the revealer of names and forms; and as the Inner Ruler of the whole world of names and forms it cannot be anything else but Brahman.

Moreover, epithets like ‘Infinite’, ‘Immortal’, ‘Self’ also show that ‘Ākāśa’ here refers to Brahman.