affirms that a statement, made in some of those passages only, to the
effect that the good and evil deeds pass over to the friends and enemies
of the deceased, is valid for all the passages.

Sûtras 27-30 constitute, according to /S/a@nkara, two adhikara/n/as of
which the former (XVI; 27, 28) decides that the shaking off of the good
and evil deeds takes place--not, as the Kaush. Up. states, on the road
to Brahman's world--but at the moment of the soul's departure from the
body; the Kaushitaki statement is therefore not to be taken
literally.--The latter adhikara/n/a (XVII; 29, 30) treats of the cognate
question whether the soul that has freed itself from its deeds proceeds
in all cases on the road of the gods (as said in the Kaush. Up.), or
not. The decision is that he only whose knowledge does not pass beyond
the sagu/n/am brahma proceeds on that road, while the soul of him who
knows the nirgu/n/am brahma becomes one with it without moving to any
other place.

The /S/rî-bhâshya treats the four Sûtras as one adhikara/n/a whose two
first Sûtras are explained as by /S/a@nkara, while Sûtra 29 raises an
objection to the conclusion arrived at, 'the going (of the soul on the
path of the gods) has a sense only if the soul's freeing itself from its
works takes place in both ways, i.e. partly at the moment of death,
partly on the road to Brahman; for otherwise there would be a
contradiction' (the contradiction being that, if the soul's works were
all shaken off at the moment of death, the subtle body would likewise
perish at that moment, and then the bodiless soul would be unable to
proceed on the path of the gods). To this Sûtra 30 replies, 'The
complete shaking off of the works at the moment of death is possible,
since matters of that kind are observed in Scripture,' i.e. since
scriptural passages show that even he whose works are entirely