English
A passage for editorial review. '®©©©OG=- This Lecture, a portion of which was read before the Agra College Literary Societj^, was prepared solely for the bene- fit of the students .reading the Vedanta Sutras and the Vedanta Sara with me in the' Agra College. The main object of the Lecture is to give beginners a general outline of the highly abstruse system of the Vedanta Philosophy, and to examine briefly its value when tested by the modern ideas of Western Philosophy, The results of modern Science have also been adduced to show that the Vedanta Phi- ^osophy can be interpreted agreeably with /them. or amateur readers, not acquainted the terms of Sanskrit Philosophy, ^technicalities of the Vedanta system 00 11 very often stand in the way of its being understood properly. For this reason I have tried my best to avoid them, and where they were unavoidable, the techni- cal expressions have been explained in sim- ple English. The English rendering of the Sanskrit extracts quoted, will, it is hoped, enable readers to understand their appli- cation even if they are not acquainted with the Sanskrit language. The object of the Lecture ' being to explain only the Philosophical phase of the Vedanta system, care has been taken to prevent it from clashing with .any other religious system. In jiresenting this Lecture before the Public, I beg openly to state that I have not ventured to introduce any new opinio on the subject of the Vedanta Philosophy nor have I suppressed anything of portance with the object of prejudicim readers in favour of this systen’ Philosophy, Ill I have moreover, quoted the ideas, and in many places the expressions, of differ- ■ ent authors on the subject, where they appeared to me to throw light on any point. The details of the Vedanta system have been left untouched as being beyond the scope of this manual. In conclusion I have to record my special thanks to Mr. C. A. Andrews, M. A., ( Comtah), Senior Professor of English Literature, Agra College, for his kindly devoting a large amount of his valuable • ^ time to read through and correct the proofs of this Lecture, and to my friend Babu H; D. Gargari, m. a., Professor of Science of the same College, for many valuable and helpful suggestions. M. L., B. Agra^ February ISih 1895, Mr. Presiee'j^t and Gentlemen, •Before beginning my Lecture, I beg to offer my thanks to. the members of the Agra College Literary Society, for doing me the honor of permitting me to approach them on a subject which is, at present, an every-day topic with many learned orien- tal scholars and which is one of the dearest possessions of us — the unfortunate Hindus of India. At the out^^, gentlemen, I must inform you that our subject will be essentially a philosophical and not a religious one. It is neither desirable nor very pleasant to iaandle here the religious phase of our subject, and so I shall gladly leave it to be judged. by the individual choice and discre- tion of my educated audience. Before dealing with any system of philo- sophy, it behoves us to explain briefly the necessity and utility of philosophy in gene- ral. Firstly, people, and often learned people, say that the world is too busy to listen to purely theoretical specjilations. In reply to this I may be allowed to remark, in the language of a -great philosopher. A LECTURE OSf 2 “that philosophy is indispensable, inas- much as, in not philosophising, we must philosophise.” To make the idea clear^ I may say, that in the very act of giving our reasons against philosophy, we must have recourse to philosophy itself. Thus, roughly speaking philosophy means, explaining any thing by applying our reasoning faculty, and this we cannot help doing every- day of our life. Such is human nature. Secondly, that philosophy is theoretical IS not a reasonable objection. For we see that the theory of gravitation, the .theor of heat, the theory of electricity, the theory of medicine, &c., are no more than theories and yet they are not despised as ■ such. On the contrary, thej'^ are universally 'accepted and admired. Thirdly, regarding the value and use of a system of philoso- phy, I must tell you, that it depends enti- rely upon the importance of the subject- matter. Some people talk of a philosophy of cooking. In reference to this, a learned author has said, that the Greeks brought philosophy down from Heaven and that those people have degraded it by introduc- ing it into their kitchens. Thus, it is clear . that the philosophy of any thing will be ,as important as. its subject matte.r is. .It THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 3 appears therefore, that the system of phi- losophy, which treats about supernatural things, must necessarily convey with it" supernatural grandeur, and so possess an all-absorbing importance. So much about- the necessity and utility of philosophy in general. . Now, gentlemen, I should state that in reading, examining, and understanding a- system of philosophy, which is exceeding- ly. abstract,, we must exercise a very' great amount of caution. This caution' lies in this that when we wish to under-; ' stand a philosophical subject fully, we are, to fix in our mind the clear and distincti ideas of the question, stripped of words ; and so likewise, in the course of reasoping- to take up the author’s ideas, neglectingh his words and observing how far they are connected or separated from those in question. We should be ever watchful, against whatsoever might conceal or . misr/ represent the subject in hand, and we? should throughout the course of dis- cussion keep the precise point steadily in cur mind, and suffer not the least alteration, in .any way. This being true of all- philospphy, is emphatically true of the Vedanta, philosophy. - We find, now-a-days,.. A lEOTtTKE OB’ many publications of books on tlirs sub- ject. Some of them deservedly excite our admiration ; ■while others, our scorn and disgust. The best advice for our youths, overwhelmed with such a host of Yedan- tic books, will be to read them with the proper caution spoken of before, and to> deal with them according to their res- pective merits, . Once for all, I must tell you that it is interest, bias, ignorance and- want of proper imspartiality, which are singly or jointly the fruitful causes of misrepresenting a subject with a view to* expose or extol it, A fair criticism, as you know, is a rare gift with man. Now we come to our subject. Gentle- men, I should tell you that the selection of your subject has been very oppor- tune at this time, when much interest is felt for the mhjeci owing to something like a revival of Hinduism all over India,* to the occasional visit of learned- oriental scholars of Europe, and to the admirable publications of such treatises as Professor MaxMuUer’s Lectures on Vedanta and Professor Huessen’s Metaphysics. Indeed we cannot do without Vedanta in our pre- sent state of transition. Thus, gentle- men,, you are quite reasonable in select- TSE TEDAKTA PHILOSOPHY. 5 ing your subject. But, at tlie same time, I am sorry to inform you that you are not very fortunate in selecting the person who IS to deal with it. Gentlemen, as you- know, I do noti>retendtobe a specialist in any branch of Sanskrit learning, nor do I possess any very, rich store of informa- tion about the grand subject of to-day, mz , the Vedanta, which, though expounded in many volumes by our greatest learned scholiast, the universally renowned San- karacharya, and by various other scholars, both here and abroad, remains to the understanding of the people at large,’ ex- tremely obscure, and abstruse. However, with all my poor resources, I must try my best to satisfy you, by acting accord- ing to your wishes and by trying -to elu- cidate as far as- possible the abstract doctrines of the Vedanta, To do this", I believe, will not be a lost labour. By so doing we shall be able to prepare our minds to receive fresh lights on this grand subject, which are every day emitted by the western luminaries of the present day, THE VEDANTA. The word Vedanta literally means the conclusion of the Vedas. In its most ex- tended sense, it is the end or scope of the 6 A LECTURE’ ON Vedas, and so it may be taken in the sense of the final portion, or the final object of the Vedas. Veda, as is generally known, means, etymologically, only knowledge, but with us it has come to mean our Holy Scriptures. The word Vedanta is sonie- times used as synonymous • with the Upanishads. I should mention here that, what we call Sruti . is divided into three parts. (1) Sanhitasi or metrical hymns, (2): Brahmanas, or expositions of those hymns for ritualistic purposes, and (3) the Sutras, or aphorisms. The Aranyakas or Upani- shads are treatises meant for the ascetics or dwellers in the forest, and are only appendices to the Brahmanas, i, e., the second division of Sruti. At present we read the Vedanta in two forms : (1) in its unsystematic form in the Upanishads, and (.2) in its systematic form in the Vedanta Sutras of Vadarayan, aliasYj^^, with the Sankarabhasya annexed to them. The Vedanta in these forms, .unlike other sys- tems of philosophy, is- both a philosophy and a religion. This. is the unique feature.' of this Indian Philosophy. When in other countries philosophy ' and religion are opposed to each other, and religious . men . and philosophers . are . • constantly; THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 7 straining their powers, without, success, to embrace one another as Iriends in their professed opinions, we in India are happy to find that our philosoj)hy is the natural out- ■ come of our religion and that- our religion is an amiable companion of our philosophy. .