The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris JastrowHopkins, Edward Washburn
Religion
The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris Jastrow
Hopkins, Edward Washburn
India -- Religion
1, into _par[=a]
devat[=a]_ or 'highest divinity' enters man's spirit, like salt in
water (_ib_. 13). In 7. 15-26, a view but half correct is stated to be
that 'breath' is all, but it is better to know that _yo bh[=u]m[=a]_
_tad am[r.]tam_, the immortal (all) is infinity, which rests in its
own greatness, with a corrective 'but perhaps it doesn't' (_yadi v[=a]
na_). This infinity is ego and _[=a]tm[=a]_.[28]
What is the reward for knowing this? One obtains worlds, unchanging
happiness, _brahma_; or, with some circumnavigation, one goes to the
moon, and eventually reaches _brahma_ or obtains the worlds of the
blessed (5. 10. 10). The round of existence, _sams[=a]ra_, is
indicated at 6. 16, and expressly stated in 5. 10. 7 (insects have
here a third path). Immortality is forcibly claimed: 'The living one
dies not' (6. 11. 3). He who knows the sections 7. 15 to 26 becomes
_[=a]tm[=a]nanda_ and "lord of all worlds"; whereas an incorrect view
gives perishable worlds. In one Upanishad there is a verse (_Çvet_. 4.
5) which would indicate a formal duality like that of the
S[=a]nkhyas;[29] but in general one may say that the Upanishads are
simply pantheistic, only the absorption into a world-soul is as yet
scarcely formulated. On the other hand, some of the older Upanishads
show traces of an atheistic and materialistic (_asad_) philosophy,
which is swallowed up in the growing inclination to personify the
creative principle, and ultimately is lost in the erection of a
personal Lord, as in the latest Upanishads. This tendency to
personify, with the increase of special sectarian gods, will lead
again, after centuries, to the rehabilitation of a triad of gods, the
_trim[=u]rti_, where unite Vishnu, Çiva, and, with these, who are more
powerful, Brahm[=a], the Praj[=a]pati of the Veda, as the All-god of
purely pantheistic systems. In the purer, older form recorded above,
the _purusha_ (Person) is sprung from the _[=a]tm[=a]_. There is no
distinction between matter and spirit. Conscious being (_sat_) wills,
and so produces all. Or _[=a]tm[=a]_ comes first; and this is
conscious _sat_ and the cause of the worlds; which _[=a]tm[=a]_
eventually becomes the Lord. The _[=a]tm[=a]_ in man, owing to his
environment, cannot see whole, and needs the Yoga discipline of
asceticism to enable him to do so. But he is the same ego which is the
All.
The relation between the absolute and the ego is through will. "This
(neuter) _brahma_ willed, 'May I be many,' and created" _(Ch[=a]nd_.,
above). Sometimes the impersonal, and sometimes the personal "spirit
willed" _(T[=a]iit._ 2. 6). And when it is said, in _Brihad [=A]ran_.
1. 4. 1, that "In the beginning ego, spirit, _[=a]tm[=a],_ alone
existed," one finds this spirit (self) to be a form of _brahma (ib._
10-11). Personified in a sectarian sense, this spirit becomes the
divinity Rudra Çiva, the Blessed One (_Çvet[=a]çvatara,_ 3. 5.
11).[30]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account