saidevo
27 January 2008, 03:14 AM
In thus doubting and asking for immortality, the Jiva instinctively feels
• that the answer lies in a basic 'Unity' of some sort or other;
• that peace can never be found in an unreconciled and conflicting 'Many'.
This feeling conditions his search throughout for reasons inherent in him-Self and in the World-Process (as will appear later).
As the Gita (xiii. 27) says: "Only when the soul sees the Many rooted in the One and aiso branching out from that One, does knowledge become complete and perfect, does the Infinite become fulfilled and realized in that soul, does the soul identify itself with the All-Self, Brahman."
The First Finding: Creation by a Personal First Cause
The first answer that the soul shapes for itself to the great question, the first tentative solution of this overpowering doubt, is embodied in the view which is called the Arambha-vAda(footnote #1), the theory of a beginning, an origination, a "creation of the world by an agency external to the questioner and to the World".
From so-called fetish-worship to highest deism and theism, all may be grouped under this first class of answer.
Worship of the Creator
Instinctively or intelligently, the Jiva sees that
• effects do not arise without causes;
• what is not effected by himself must be caused by another;
• he himself (as he then regards himself) is an effect, and that his cause must be another;
• whatever is the more permanent, the older, is the cause of the temporary, the younger;
• and he finally infers and believes that his well-being, permanence, immortality, lies in, is dependent on, his cause, his Creator.
From such working of the mind arise the multifarious forms of faith, beginning with belief in, and worship of, stone and plant and animal, and ending in belief in, and worship of, a personal First Cause.
The general form and meaning of worship is the same throughout: prayer for some benefit or grace.
The accompanying condition of worship is the same also: giving assurance of humility in order to evoke benevolence in the object of worship, by prostration and obeisance and sacrifice of objects held most dear, to prove (sometimes, with cruellest immolation of others or of self, though at others with a most beautiful and most noble self-surrender) that they are not held dearer than that worshipped object.
Moving away from the First Answer
This first answer is a religion as well as a philosophy, but the Jlva finds not rest for long therein as he soon discovers
• that the concrete material idols fail again and again, and so does the mental idol;
• the incompatibility of evil and suffering with a being who is at once omnipotent, omniscient, and all-good;(footnote #2)
• the unsatisfied need for an explanation why a personal being who is perfect should create a world at all;
• and how he can create it out of nothing as he must, if it is not to be coexistent with and so at least to some extent independent of him.
Such distressing doubts have always shaken faith, first in the power and goodness of the creator, then in his very existence. So the Jiva is set adrift again a-searching.
The truth that underlies this first answer, in all its forms, he will discern again when he has obtained what he now wants so urgently.
The Second Finding: Evolution by the interplay of two co-eternal factors
His next haven of rest, the second answer, is the pariNAma-vAda,(footnote #3) or vikAra-vAda (of Vedanta-Sara), the theory of change, transformation, evolution and dissolution, by the interaction of two factors.
By a great generalisation he reduces all the phenomena of the universe to two permanent elements, present always, universally, under all circumstances, throughout all the changes that he sees and feels.
The materialism and agnosticism which believe in 'Matter and Force', and declare all else unknown; the ordinary Sankhya doctrine of 'Purusha and Prakrti', (or, rather, an infinite number of Purushas and one Prakrti); 'Ego and non-Ego', 'Self and not-Self,' 'Subject and Object', 'Spirit and Matter'--all fall under this second category. Most of the philosophies of the world are here; the variations as to detail are endless, but the view that the universe is due to two finals, is common to them all.
Duality as religion and philosophy
At this stage if the duality is made the basis of a religion at all, the believer proclaims the factor of Good as superior to the factor of Evil, and assigns to it a final triumph, regarding God as prevailing over Satan, Hormuzd over Ahriman, Purusha over Prakrti, Spirit over Matter, in a vague undefined way, sacrificing strict logic to the instinctive need for Unity, which, as said before, conditions the search throughout.
But where the two are seen as equal, as in the Sankhya, religion vanishes, no practice corresponds to the theory. Thus, the Sankhya system describes Purusha as 'lame,' and Prakrti as 'blind', helping each other, apparently, for the purpose of (each feeling it-'self' alive, existing, in) the Play of the World-Process, but in reality opposed in nature. The struggle between the two weakens both; each factor neutralises the other. There is no worship in the absence of a One Supreme to worship. Only philosophy remains, a belief, wavering and satisfactionless.
Failure of the Second Finding
An explanation by two eternals, a plurality of infinites, each unlimited and yet not interfering with the unlimitedness of the other, though existing out of and independently of it; with, furthermore, their interplay governed by Chance--such an explanation is no explanation at all.
If it is said that these many eternals and infinites exist, not out of but, within each other, that they pervade and permeate each other, then the 'explanation' becomes yet more unintelligible. It is all a contradiction in terms; it is mere arbitrariness; there is no order, no certainty, no law, no reason in it. However correct it may be as a generalised statement of indubitable facts, viz., an endlessness of Spirit and an endlessness of Matter, those facts themselves remain unexplained, unreconciled, impossible to understand.
The truth that underlies this belief also will appear when the final answer is found.
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NOTE
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The Arambha-vAda corresponds to what in modern psychology is called "the popular conception of causality". (Hoffding's Outlines of Psychology, V D).
Hoffding's own view may be described as the scientific notion of causality, corresponding to the pariNAma-vAda.
The final or Vedantic notion, including, yet transcending, the other two, known in Samskrt as vivarta-vAda, adhyAsa-vAda, and also as AbhAsa-vAda, may be described in modern terms as the metaphysical notion of causation, not yet recognised and accepted in the west; though some thinkers approximate. Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Bradley, Koyce, Green, Caird and others, catch different aspects of it.
vivarta-vAda is the 'doctrine of reversal, opposition', because the Changing World-Effect is the illusory opposite of the Changeless Consciousness-Cause; also, perhaps, because, while the Sankhya concludes that Nature-Matter-Prakrti is One, and Souls-Forces-Purushas infinitely Many, the Vedanta reverses the conclusion, and holds that the Spirit is One, and Matter Many; adhy-Asa is 'baseless im-post-ure, super-im-position, or sup-position', 'false imputation', of attributes and qualities which do not exist; A-bhAsa is 'illusory appearance'. The full significance of this third and last answer will appear, later on.
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Footnotes:
**************************************************
1. Panicha-dashi xiii.7.
AraMbhavaadinaH anyasmaat anyasya utpattim uuchire |
The Vaisheshikas and others who support the doctrine of 'Arambha' admit other causes than those which produce results as the source from which they are produced: because yarn is seen to produce cloth. Verily yarn is quite distinct from loth, its product; and their modifications and uses are different; no thread can be worn, but cloth is.
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2. Shankara, Shariraka-bhashya, II.i.34.
No partiality and cruelty (can be charged against God) because of (His) taking other factors into consideration. For so the Vedas show.
**************************************************
3. Panicha-dashi xiii.8.
avasthAntaratA ApattiH ekasya pariNAmitA |
syAt kSIra.n dadhi mR^it kumbhaH suvarNa.n kuNDala.n yathA
"One and the same thing passing into a new state, as milk becoming curds; clay, pots, gold, earrings--this is 'parinAma'."
**************************************************
• that the answer lies in a basic 'Unity' of some sort or other;
• that peace can never be found in an unreconciled and conflicting 'Many'.
This feeling conditions his search throughout for reasons inherent in him-Self and in the World-Process (as will appear later).
As the Gita (xiii. 27) says: "Only when the soul sees the Many rooted in the One and aiso branching out from that One, does knowledge become complete and perfect, does the Infinite become fulfilled and realized in that soul, does the soul identify itself with the All-Self, Brahman."
The First Finding: Creation by a Personal First Cause
The first answer that the soul shapes for itself to the great question, the first tentative solution of this overpowering doubt, is embodied in the view which is called the Arambha-vAda(footnote #1), the theory of a beginning, an origination, a "creation of the world by an agency external to the questioner and to the World".
From so-called fetish-worship to highest deism and theism, all may be grouped under this first class of answer.
Worship of the Creator
Instinctively or intelligently, the Jiva sees that
• effects do not arise without causes;
• what is not effected by himself must be caused by another;
• he himself (as he then regards himself) is an effect, and that his cause must be another;
• whatever is the more permanent, the older, is the cause of the temporary, the younger;
• and he finally infers and believes that his well-being, permanence, immortality, lies in, is dependent on, his cause, his Creator.
From such working of the mind arise the multifarious forms of faith, beginning with belief in, and worship of, stone and plant and animal, and ending in belief in, and worship of, a personal First Cause.
The general form and meaning of worship is the same throughout: prayer for some benefit or grace.
The accompanying condition of worship is the same also: giving assurance of humility in order to evoke benevolence in the object of worship, by prostration and obeisance and sacrifice of objects held most dear, to prove (sometimes, with cruellest immolation of others or of self, though at others with a most beautiful and most noble self-surrender) that they are not held dearer than that worshipped object.
Moving away from the First Answer
This first answer is a religion as well as a philosophy, but the Jlva finds not rest for long therein as he soon discovers
• that the concrete material idols fail again and again, and so does the mental idol;
• the incompatibility of evil and suffering with a being who is at once omnipotent, omniscient, and all-good;(footnote #2)
• the unsatisfied need for an explanation why a personal being who is perfect should create a world at all;
• and how he can create it out of nothing as he must, if it is not to be coexistent with and so at least to some extent independent of him.
Such distressing doubts have always shaken faith, first in the power and goodness of the creator, then in his very existence. So the Jiva is set adrift again a-searching.
The truth that underlies this first answer, in all its forms, he will discern again when he has obtained what he now wants so urgently.
The Second Finding: Evolution by the interplay of two co-eternal factors
His next haven of rest, the second answer, is the pariNAma-vAda,(footnote #3) or vikAra-vAda (of Vedanta-Sara), the theory of change, transformation, evolution and dissolution, by the interaction of two factors.
By a great generalisation he reduces all the phenomena of the universe to two permanent elements, present always, universally, under all circumstances, throughout all the changes that he sees and feels.
The materialism and agnosticism which believe in 'Matter and Force', and declare all else unknown; the ordinary Sankhya doctrine of 'Purusha and Prakrti', (or, rather, an infinite number of Purushas and one Prakrti); 'Ego and non-Ego', 'Self and not-Self,' 'Subject and Object', 'Spirit and Matter'--all fall under this second category. Most of the philosophies of the world are here; the variations as to detail are endless, but the view that the universe is due to two finals, is common to them all.
Duality as religion and philosophy
At this stage if the duality is made the basis of a religion at all, the believer proclaims the factor of Good as superior to the factor of Evil, and assigns to it a final triumph, regarding God as prevailing over Satan, Hormuzd over Ahriman, Purusha over Prakrti, Spirit over Matter, in a vague undefined way, sacrificing strict logic to the instinctive need for Unity, which, as said before, conditions the search throughout.
But where the two are seen as equal, as in the Sankhya, religion vanishes, no practice corresponds to the theory. Thus, the Sankhya system describes Purusha as 'lame,' and Prakrti as 'blind', helping each other, apparently, for the purpose of (each feeling it-'self' alive, existing, in) the Play of the World-Process, but in reality opposed in nature. The struggle between the two weakens both; each factor neutralises the other. There is no worship in the absence of a One Supreme to worship. Only philosophy remains, a belief, wavering and satisfactionless.
Failure of the Second Finding
An explanation by two eternals, a plurality of infinites, each unlimited and yet not interfering with the unlimitedness of the other, though existing out of and independently of it; with, furthermore, their interplay governed by Chance--such an explanation is no explanation at all.
If it is said that these many eternals and infinites exist, not out of but, within each other, that they pervade and permeate each other, then the 'explanation' becomes yet more unintelligible. It is all a contradiction in terms; it is mere arbitrariness; there is no order, no certainty, no law, no reason in it. However correct it may be as a generalised statement of indubitable facts, viz., an endlessness of Spirit and an endlessness of Matter, those facts themselves remain unexplained, unreconciled, impossible to understand.
The truth that underlies this belief also will appear when the final answer is found.
**************************************************
NOTE
**************************************************
The Arambha-vAda corresponds to what in modern psychology is called "the popular conception of causality". (Hoffding's Outlines of Psychology, V D).
Hoffding's own view may be described as the scientific notion of causality, corresponding to the pariNAma-vAda.
The final or Vedantic notion, including, yet transcending, the other two, known in Samskrt as vivarta-vAda, adhyAsa-vAda, and also as AbhAsa-vAda, may be described in modern terms as the metaphysical notion of causation, not yet recognised and accepted in the west; though some thinkers approximate. Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Bradley, Koyce, Green, Caird and others, catch different aspects of it.
vivarta-vAda is the 'doctrine of reversal, opposition', because the Changing World-Effect is the illusory opposite of the Changeless Consciousness-Cause; also, perhaps, because, while the Sankhya concludes that Nature-Matter-Prakrti is One, and Souls-Forces-Purushas infinitely Many, the Vedanta reverses the conclusion, and holds that the Spirit is One, and Matter Many; adhy-Asa is 'baseless im-post-ure, super-im-position, or sup-position', 'false imputation', of attributes and qualities which do not exist; A-bhAsa is 'illusory appearance'. The full significance of this third and last answer will appear, later on.
**************************************************
Footnotes:
**************************************************
1. Panicha-dashi xiii.7.
AraMbhavaadinaH anyasmaat anyasya utpattim uuchire |
The Vaisheshikas and others who support the doctrine of 'Arambha' admit other causes than those which produce results as the source from which they are produced: because yarn is seen to produce cloth. Verily yarn is quite distinct from loth, its product; and their modifications and uses are different; no thread can be worn, but cloth is.
**************************************************
2. Shankara, Shariraka-bhashya, II.i.34.
No partiality and cruelty (can be charged against God) because of (His) taking other factors into consideration. For so the Vedas show.
**************************************************
3. Panicha-dashi xiii.8.
avasthAntaratA ApattiH ekasya pariNAmitA |
syAt kSIra.n dadhi mR^it kumbhaH suvarNa.n kuNDala.n yathA
"One and the same thing passing into a new state, as milk becoming curds; clay, pots, gold, earrings--this is 'parinAma'."
**************************************************