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pain its fruits, affording livelihood to all creatures Having cut down and split the tree ( of Samsdra ) with the mighty sword of knowledge, and then at- tained to the Bliss of the Self, ( Brahman ), which is beyond that tree, one does not come back 119 again from -there, the supreme abode of Brahman, ((^ankara continues) They speak of the illusory Scm- sdra as a tree with roots above. The Mahat ( the great ), Ahamhdra ( Egoism ) and the Tanmdtrds ( elemental essences ) are its branches, as it were, and these are evolved further down ; whence the tree is said to he 'with branches below.’ Js'taltha is so called because it will ( ST ) not abide even till ( J^) s'va — to-morrovT, and is liable to destruction every moment. The illusion of Savisdra having existed in time without beginning, this tree of Sam- Sara is eternal — inexhaustible ; for, it rests, as is well-known, on a continuous series of births, which is without a beginning or an end (i. e. a final limit, as it appears and vanishes every other moment ), and is thus inexhaustible He who knows the tree of Samsara and the roots as described above is a knovrer of the teachings of the Vedas. Indeed, nothing else remains to be known beyond this tree of Samsdra and its root. Brahman.’ Or in the words of His Keverence Vasis'tha: — II” ‘ In that pure mirror ( Brahman ) are reflected all these things ( the universe ) whose esse ( is pereqn as trees on its banks are reflected in a stream.’ The Vedanta arranges the universe first into two natural classes: — (^T?) insentient Matter, and Intelligence, Mind, (Motion, Force). Vast and various combinations of these two ( Matter and Mind) form the innumerable things the Universe is made of. It is classified also under, or rather divided into, five 120 principal heads or parts for certain explanations, viz: — Existence, Knowledge, and Joy; and Name and Form. The first three, being the essence of Brahman, are <^) Sat, x-eal; the last two, Mdy4’s parts, are ( Asat, not real. Ordinary persons, though they see the five parts in everything, are but cognizant of the last two, viz., name and form, which present themselves conspicu- ously to their sight, and cannot perceive the first Three, the Noumenal, on which the phenomenal last two are super-imposed. The latter so much claim attention for themselves that the former remains concealed, just as the central thread on which pearls or beads are strung remains concealed from the eye of the gazer. The enlightened, who can see deeper, find all the three of the first group underlying all the names and forms of the Universe, and enjoy the highest hap- piness derived from knowing the truth. In our knowledge of man and matter the process in reference to matter is as follows: — The existence of the whole visible universe is but an inference or apprehension, following upon impressions thx-ough the medium of light-undulations on the retina. The ether-waves affect our eyes and make us aware of this, and our belief in its reality is derived from the ( ^ ) Form. In reference to man the process is as follows: — when we apprehend — through the medium of light- undulations — those changes of facial expression, and through the waves of sormd, — ^those changes of the tone of voice which indicate the joy, the sorrow. 121 the fear, the love, the hatred of those with whom we talk, the direct analysable knowledge from the waves of ether that affect our eye and our ear, is but of the shadow, the Name and Form. We pass from seeing the looks and hearing the words to the feelings and thoughts which are the Reality behind them. This knowledge of the substance through the shadow demonstrates in like manner that all we directly know in this world of appearances is but the shadow and the sign. We must pass from the indication of name and form to the Reality beyond, which is the Existence- Knowledge-Bliss. The Vedflnta leads up its student to a point of view whence the small fragments, as it were, of the Infinite Whole, of which he is able to obtain a glimpse, appear to him in their true relative propoi’- tions. For this purpose the classification of Jim, Jagat, and Parmdtman is made. To the Ved^ntin every point of the objective uni- verse of the five parts or elements is as a window through which he looks into the Infinite itself. He knows how * to look through Nature up to Nature’s God ’ and finds the sole bliss in his love of God, Nature, and Man. It is ignorance which makes us unconscious of the first Three, but they are there none the less. The Panchadas'ik^ra says; — 5:^! II” *As without seeing the glass, there is no possibility 11 122 of a sight of whatever is reflected therein, so without perceiving first Sat-chit-dnanda, existence, know- ledge, and joy, whence could there be any possibility of the perception of name and form ? * But transcendental idealism is the intellectual pos- session of a few persons of philosophic mind. The common mass can see phenomena only, which appear and are distinguished from something more real which does not appear. The Ved^Lnta Metaphysics gives the knowledge respecting Reality, which is not phenomenal, e, God, the highest Self. Jagat, the universe, is revealed to us through perception, and is the subject-matter of the natural sciences. ( 'Sa^, Ens, the True, is defined to be that which has continued existence, or which has been, is, and shall ever be, i. e., which truly and really exists ever in the past, present, and future. Asat ( Not-true ), according to the VedS.nta, is that which is wanting in existence during one or more of the three divisions of Time. Asat is also called untrue, false, which does not mean, as is errone- ously supposed, to be illusive or fictitious, but simply phenomenal. Whatever has either beginn- ingorend, is cIT Biwn) phenomenal. The universe has either beginning or end, and therefore it is called ( ) phenomenal, unreal. But it is supposed to exist for all practical purposes, and its VydmMrihi SaM) practical or conventional existence is allowed, which is sufiicient for acting upon, but insuflScient to the reason. The Vedanta does not deny, as is commonly su])- posed, the existence of ( or rather in ) matter, but corrects the popular notion of it. It only contends 123 that the phenomenal name and form of it has no essence independent of mental perception, that ( in this case) existence and perceptibility are convertible terms, that external appearances and sensations are illusory and would vanish into nothing if the divine energy, the higher Reality, the substratum (^(||^r), which alone sustains them were suspended for a moment. In the Brahma- StUras (11,2,28) it is plainly declared that ' the non-existence of external things cannot be maintained, because we are conscious of external things’. We must always remember, when M&y& and her effects are spoken of in the Vedanta, to distinguish their kinds. is ( ) in the form of darkness, igno- rance. She is ( gr¥ ) insentient, and consists in de- lusion. Wherever in this phenomenal world one finds ignorance, iiisentiency and delusion, it is owing to MS,y^. This is experienced from the ordinary stand-point by all, and it is called ( JTPTT ) Real MS,y4. In the light of argument Miiyi\ is inexplicable, a mystery, for she cannot be proved as {^) entity nor as non-entity. In the light of true knowledge Maysi is ( g^gi) absurdity. She thus appears according to the stand-point as a reality, a mystery, or an absurdity.^ Keeping this view in mind Colebrooke says: — ‘that the notion that the versatile world is an entire illusion ( absurdity ) and all that passes to the apprehension of the waking individual is but a phantasy, present- ed to his imagination, nay, that every seeming thing 1. See the Panchadatn, Ohitradtpa VI, S. 125-130. 124 is unreal, and all is visionary, does not appear to be the doctrine of the text of the Vedllnta*. There are two kinds of illusions: — (1) When one imagines he sees a serpent instead of a rope, there is ( ) something real behind the illusion. When the Ved^ntin says the phenomenal world is an illu- sion, May&, he always means that there is something, the reality of Brahman, behind it. (2) Another kind of illusion is where there is nothing, no reality, be- hind the appearance. When one hears of ( ) the horn of a man or ( ) rabbit’s horn, ( ) the son of a barren woman ( i. e. an im- possibility,) or, when a man in an access of fever ima- gines he sees a god or a devil, there is nothing real behind. This is called emptiness, nothingness, which is not a Veddnta doctrine. The Veddntin holds that there is ( ) the absolutely real Brahmau behind MS.ytl and her relatively real phenomenal world. The absolute higher reality can be conceived only by a very few of philosophic turn of mind, and not by the many. ‘To those who cannot see a higher reality behind the phenomenal world, the phenomenal world possesses, of course, the most absolute reality, while in their eyes the real postulated by the philosopher, behind the veil of the senses, is utterly unreal/’^ We see grades in Creation. All things from the loftiest spiritual entity to the tiniest molecule are !• Three Lectures on the Veddnia Philosophy by Dr, Max Muller, p. 125. Also see the Bhagvad-Giid^ II. 69, “ m ftvr fmi 5smfi!r ffinft i m ftnprr m ’’ 125 manifestations of the Highest Self under certain limiting conditions, but occupying different places in an ascending scale. In Nature inorganic matter is succeeded by organic, and amongst organized beings there is a graduated scale from the plant up to man, the highest point of development.