regard to Brahman. Adhik. I (1) [2] treats of what the study of the
Vedânta presupposes. Adhik. II (2) defines Brahman as that whence the
world originates, and so on. Adhik. III (3) declares that Brahman is the
source of the Veda. Adhik. IV (4) proves Brahman to be the uniform topic
of all Vedânta-texts. Adhik. V (5-11) is engaged in proving by various
arguments that the Brahman, which the Vedânta-texts represent as the
cause of the world, is an intelligent principle, and cannot be
identified with the non-intelligent pradhâna from which the world
springs according to the Sâ@nkhyas.

With the next adhikara/n/a there begins a series of discussions of
essentially similar character, extending up to the end of the first
adhyâya. The question is throughout whether certain terms met with in
the Upanishads denote Brahman or some other being, in most cases the
jîva, the individual soul. /S/a@nkara remarks at the outset that, as the
preceding ten Sûtras had settled the all-important point that all the
Vedânta-texts refer to Brahman, the question now arises why the enquiry
should be continued any further, and thereupon proceeds to explain that
the acknowledged distinction of a higher Brahman devoid of all qualities
and a lower Brahman characterised by qualities necessitates an
investigation whether certain Vedic texts of primâ facie doubtful import
set forth the lower Brahman as the object of devout meditation, or the
higher Brahman as the object of true knowledge. But that such an
investigation is actually carried on in the remaining portion of the
first adhyâya, appears neither from the wording of the Sûtras nor even
from /S/a@nkara's own treatment of the Vedic texts referred to in the
Sûtras. In I, 1, 20, for instance, the question is raised whether the
golden man within the sphere of the sun, with golden hair and beard and
lotus-coloured eyes--of whom the Chândogya Upanishad speaks in 1, 6,
6--is an individual soul abiding within the sun or the highest Lord.