Brahmasutra is a treatise on the nature of Ultimate Reality and Truth (Brahman) as propounded by the Upanishads. Brahmasutra is traditionally ascribed to Badarayana who is identified by some scholars with Sage Vyasa.
Brahman and its relation to the world – Brahman is the cause
and effect of the world. Two illustrations are given by him to show this. A
piece of rolled up cloth does not disclose what is painted on it. When it is
unrolled, what is painted on it is manifest. Similarly, the effect is only the
cause unrolling itself. Here the cloth is one and the same but only its
conditions differ.
In another illustration, Badarayana shows how, when a person
holds the breath, he is not able to move his limbs and to perform actions and when
the breath is released, activity starts. Though the breath is the same,
activity or inactivity results when it is held or released. So also, cause and
effect, though one and the same, function differently under different conditions
of potentiality and actuality.
In other words, Brahman and its creation are not different
just as a pot made of clay is not different from clay, its material cause.
The power to create belongs to Brahman as heat belongs to
fire. Brahman, says Badarayana, creates just lila (sport) without any change in
itself by his mere sankalpa (will).