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(6) Criticism of igvara Z (c) Refutation of the Soul Theory ; (d) Refutation of the Mimamsa Theory of the Self (e) Refutation of the Samkhya View of the Self (f) Refutation of the Upanisad View of the Self 5 (g) Refutation of the Theory of the Persistence of Existing Entities ; (h) Refutation of Criticisms of the Non-permanency of Entities (i) Refutation of the Nyaya Vaisgesika Categories Dialectic of Sankara and Anandajfiana Philosophy of the Prakatartha-vivarana (A.D. bay Vimuktatman (A.D. 1200) . Ramadvaya (A.D. 1300) Vidyaranya (A.D. 1350) Nrsimhagrama Muni (a.D. 1500) Appaya Diksita (A.D. 1550) Prakasgananda (A.D. 1550—1600) Madhusiidana Sarasvati (A.D. 1500) PAGE I 13 36 46 58 73 77 82 87 98 102 106 IIl 116 118 125 147 163 171 171 176 178 179 181 181 182 185 187 189 196 198 204 214 216 218 220 225 4 oe HOD ON AUN AW DN 12 mM oH ~ OO ON AM FW DN 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Contents CHAPTER XII THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE YOGA-VASISTHA Yoga-vasistha The Ultimate Entity Origination Karma, Manas and ie Civcsae: The World-Appearance 3 Nature of Agency Kartriva) and the Illusion of World Creation 5 The Stage of the Saint (Fivan-mukta) Energy of Free-will (Paurusa) Prana and its Control Stages of Progress Methods of Right Conduct : Yoga-vasistha, Sankara Vedanta and Buddhist Vijnanavada CHAPTER XIII SPECULATIONS IN THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS Ayur-veda and the Atharva-Veda Bones in the Atharva-Veda and Ayur-veda Organs in the Atharva-Veda and Ayur-veda Practice of Medicine in the Atharva-Veda The Foetus and the Subtle Body Foetal Development Growth and Disease Vayu, Pitta and Kapha Head and Heart 5 The Circulatory and the Nevo Sater The Nervous System of the Tantras The Theory of Rasas and their Chemistry : The Psychological Views and other Ontological Cuteoiive Logical Speculations and Terms relating to Academic Dispute Did Logic Originate in the Discussions of Ayur-veda Physicians? Ayur-veda Ethics Springs of Action in the Cardka-sanchere Good Life in Caraka Ayur-veda Literature PAGE 228 ea 235 237 240 242 245 252 256 264 267 268 273 284 288 293 302 312 319 325 340 344 352 357 366 373 392 402 411 418 423 oon anh WD H oH “ O 12 cal 7s) Contents CHAPTER XIV THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA The Gita Literature Gita and Yoga . Samkhya and Yoga in the Gua Samkhya Philosophy in the Gita Avyakta and Brahman Conception of Sacrificial Duties in the Gua Sense-control in the Gita : The Ethics of the Gita and the Buddhist Ethics Analysis of Action Eschatology God and Man . Visnu, Vasudeva and oad Bhagavata and the Bhagavad-gita INDEX . - : . - - : : , xi PAGE 437 443 455 461 47° 479 488 493 515 517 523 535 545 553 a? rat ii: . Gera ine 4 . ; aa en ye. 7 Feu relia r _ te) ee Y: ba / 4 ‘ f fe a? ae eee are Fs > /. ne * a a ’ ee ip hte ao. a << - rd 7% a a ee o> ae © a ae Wh!) ee sae 7 . fen a Fig ee ce hae Si : | {eae ae av ee bd wr i ¥, ay nes CHAPTER XI THE SANKARA SCHOOL OF VEDANTA (continued) =~ THE treatment of the school of Sankara Vedanta in the preceding chapter may be considered fairly sufficient for all ordinary pur- poses. But the reputation of this school of thought stands so high, and so many people are interested in it, that it was pointed out to me that it would be desirable to go into a little more detailed study of it. An additional justification for such a suggestion is to be found in the regrettable fact that, though numerous elementary and half-informed treatises have been published both in this country and in Europe, I do not know of any systematic study of the system in any of the modern languages of Europe or Asia which has been based on a first-hand study of the works of the great thinkers of this school who followed Sankara and developed his system in a remarkably recondite manner. The comparatively small compass of this chapter in a History of Indian Philosophy cannot be expected to fulfil adequately such a demand; but still it may be expected that an attempt to bring out some of these materials by some amount of detailed study will be excusable, though it may seem slightly to disturb the general plan of this work. The World-Appearance. The Upanisads, called also the Vedanta, contain passages which indicate very different lines of thought, theistic, pantheistic, of self as the only ultimate reality, creationism, etc. The works of those commentators who wrote commentaries on the Upanisads before Sankara and tried to interpret them on the supposition that there was one uniform, systematic, dogmatic philosophy in them are now practically all lost, and all that we can know of them is contained in the meagre references that are found in Sankara’s commentaries or the works of other, later, commentators. As an example I may refer to Bhartrprapafica, who tried to give a realistic interpretation of the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad by treating the world and souls as real emanations from God or Brahman}. 1 Fragments of Bhartrprapafica from the writings of Sankara and his com- mentator Anandajfiana and from Suresvara’s Varttika have been collected by Prof. Hiriyanna, Mysore, in a short paper read at the Third Oriental Conference in Madras in 1924, published in Madras in 1925. Dil I a 2 The Sankara School of Vedanta [cH. Sankara inherited from his predecessors the opinion that the Upanisads teach us one consistent systematic philosophy, but, being under the influence of Gaudapada, differed from them on the nature of this philosophy, which he propounded so elabo- rately in all his commentaries on the Upanisads and the Brahma- sutras. The main thesis of Sankara, as has already been pointed out in the preceding chapter, consists of the view that Brahman alone is the ultimate reality, while everything else is false. He was interested in proving that this philosophy was preached in the Upanisads; but in the Upanisads there are many passages which are clearly of a theistic and dualistic purport, and no amount of linguistic trickery could convincingly show that these could yield a meaning which would support Sankara’s thesis. Sankara there- fore introduces the distinction of a common-sense view (vyava- harika) and a philosophic view (paramarthika), and explains the Upanisads on the supposition that, while there are some passages in them which describe things from a purely philosophic point of view, there are many others which speak of things only from a common-sense dualistic view of a real world, real souls and a real God as creator. Sankara has applied this method of interpretation not only in his commentary on the Upanisads, but also in his commentary on the Brahma-sitra. Judging by the sitras alone, it does not seem to me that the Brahma-sitra supports the philosophical doctrine of Sankara, and there are some siitras which Sankara himself interpreted in a dualistic manner. He was never afraid of indulging in realistic interpretations ; for he could easily get out of the difficulty by asserting that all the realistic conceptions found in the sitras or in the Upanisad passages were merely an estimate of things from the common-sense point of view. Though on the basis of Sankara’s own statements, as well as those of his later commentators and other adherents of his school, there is hardly any room for doubt regarding the meaning and force of Sankara’s philosophy, yet at least one Indian scholar has sought to prove that Sankara’s philosophy was realistic!. That there was some amount of realism in Sankara is proved by his own con- fession, when he criticizes the uncompromising Buddhistic idealists (vyfiana-vadins) or the so-called Buddhistic nihilists (samya-vadins). 1 Advaita Philosophy by K. Vidyaratna, published by the Calcutta Univer- sity Press, 1924. xq] The World-Appearance 3 I have already discussed in a general way in what sense according to the Vedanta, from the point of view of the Sankara school of Vedanta as interpreted by his later adherents, the world is an illusion. But in the present section I propose to discuss Sankara’s own statements, as well as the statements of some of his important followers, on the subject of the nature of world-illusion. This is “ one of the most important points of the Sankara school of philosophy and needs a discussion in some detail. But before I take it up, I am naturally reminded of the views of Buddhist idealism and the so-called Buddhistic nihilism, and it seems desirable that Sankara’s doctrine of illusion should be treated in connection with the doctrines of illusion in those systems of Buddhistic thought which preceded Sankara. Taking the Sanya- vada theory of Nagarjuna and Candrakirti, we see that they also introduced the distinction between limited truth and absolute truth. Thus Nagarjuna says in his Madhyamika-sitras that the Buddhas preach their philosophy on the basis of two kinds of truth, truth as veiled by ignorance and depending on common-sense pre- suppositions and judgments (samurti-satya) and truth as unqualified and ultimate (paramartha-satya)'. The word samurti literally means “closed.”’ Candrakirti explains samvrti as meaning ‘‘closing on all sides” and says that it is ignorance (ajfana) which is denoted by the term samurti here, because it covers the truth of all things?. In this sense the whole of the world of our experience of causes and effects, which we perceive and of which we speak, presents an appearance which is hidden by ignorance.