These two volumes depict a scholarly, authentic and faithful translation of the commentary of Sri Sankaracarya on the Brahma-Sutras. The author has been able to do so because, in the first place, he has kept himself very close to the meaning and spirit of the interpretation of the Sutras as done by the great Acarya, and secondly, because he could adopt the mystical view-point of Sankaracarya which subsumes and goes beyond the view-point of the earlier theistic interpreters and translators. The writer has thus been able to show for the first time that Sankaracarya is at once a realist and an idealist, as also a theist and a mystic. The second volume, throws a new light on the entire philosophy of Sankaracarya, and as such, on many of the knotty problems in Vedanta. The treatment of the learned scholar of how Vivartavada and Parinamavada, or the saguna and the nirguna aspects of Brahman are compatible with each other, as also how the Mayavada of Sankaracarya ekes out the deficiencies of Ajitavada and Cidvilasavada, and how steering clear of the dangers of both the views, it lands us safe in the region of works, devotion and the illuminational kind of direct, first-hand knowledge of Brahman, are worth being studied. The two volumes are comprehensive and convincing and are blessed with a foreword from the great Philosopher-Saint of India, the Late Professor R.D. Ranade.
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