Brahman, entitles us to view with some distrust /S/a@nkara's assertion
that another set also--IV, 4, 1-7--has to be detached from the general
topic of the fourth adhyâya, and to be understood as depicting the
condition of those who have obtained final absolute release. And the
Sûtras themselves do not tend to weaken this preliminary want of
confidence. In the first place their wording also gives no indication
whatever of their having to be separated from what precedes as well as
what follows. And, in the second place, the last Sûtra of the set (7)
obliges /S/a@nkara to ascribe to his truly released souls qualities
which clearly cannot belong to them; so that he finally is obliged to
make the extraordinary statement that those qualities belong to them
'vyavahârâpekshayâ,' while yet the purport of the whole adhikara/n/a is
said to be the description of the truly released soul for which no
vyavahâra exists! Very truly /S/a@nkara's commentator here remarks,
'atra ke/k/in muhyanti akha/n/da/k/inmâtrajânân muktasyâjñânâbhâvât kuta
âj/ñ/ânika-dharmayoga/h/,' and the way in which thereupon he himself
attempts to get over the difficulty certainly does not improve matters.

In connexion with the two passages discussed, we meet in the fourth
adhyâya with another passage, which indeed has no direct bearing on the
distinction of aparâ and parâ vidyâ, but may yet be shortly referred to
in this place as another and altogether undoubted instance of
/S/a@nkara's interpretations not always agreeing with the text of the
Sûtras. The Sûtras 7-16 of the third pâda state the opinions of three
different teachers on the question to which Brahman the soul of the
vidvân repairs on death, or--according to Râmânuja--the worshippers of
which Brahman repair to (the highest) Brahman. Râmânuja treats the views
of Bâdari and Jaimini as two pûrvapakshas, and the opinion of
Bâdarâya/n/a--which is stated last--as the siddhânta. /S/a@nkara, on the
other hand, detaching the Sûtras in which Bâdarâya/n/a's view is set