A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 756 pages of information about A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1.

A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 756 pages of information about A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1.

of certain physical phenomena which have no philosophical importance.  All the special phenomena of nature are explained as being due to unknown cause (ad@r@s@takaritam) and no explanation is given as to the nature of this unknown (ad@r@s@ta).  It is however said that with the absence of ad@r@s@ta there is no contact of body with soul, and thus there is no rebirth, and therefore mok@sa (salvation); pleasure and pain are due to contact of the self, manas, senses and objects.  Yoga is that in which the mind is in contact with the self alone, by which the former becomes steady and there is no pain in the body.  Time, space, akas’a are regarded as inactive.

The whole of the sixth book is devoted to showing that gifts are made to proper persons not through sympathy but on account of the injunction of the scriptures, the enumeration of certain Vedic performances, which brings in ad@r@s@ta, purification and impurities of things, how passions are often generated by ad@r@s@ta, how dharma and adharma lead to birth and death and how mok@sa takes place as a result of the work of the soul.

In the seventh book it is said that the qualities in eternal things are eternal and in non-eternal things non-eternal.  The change of qualities produced by heat in earth has its beginning in the cause (the atoms).  Atomic size is invisible while great size is visible.  Visibility is due to a thing’s being made up of many causes [Footnote ref 1], but the atom is therefore different from those that have great size.  The same thing may be called great and small relatively at the same time.  In accordance with a@nutva (atomic) and mahattva (great) there are also the notions of small and big.  The eternal size of parima@n@dala (round) belongs to the atoms.  Akas’a and atman are called mahan or paramamahan (the supremely great or all-pervasive); since manas is not of the great measure it is of atomic size.  Space and time are also considered as being of the measure “supremely great” (paramamahat), Atomic size (parima@n@dala) belonging to the atoms and the mind (manas) and the supremely great size belonging to space, time, soul and ether (akas’a) are regarded as eternal.

In the second chapter of the seventh book it is said that unity and separateness are to be admitted as entities distinct from other qualities.  There is no number in movement and quality; the appearance of number in them is false.  Cause and effect are

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[Footnote 1:  I have differed from the Upaskara in the interpretation of this sutra.]

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A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.