Outlines of Indian Philosophy

SR No.: 001178
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Paul Deussen
Publisher: Crest Publishing House
Publication Year: 1996
Total Pages: 72
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Philosophy
File Size: 3 MB

Page 61

52
OUTLINES OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
Kantian Schopenhauer. But Çankara in his conclusions goes perhaps further than any of them. If really our soul, says he, is not a part of Brahman but Brahman himself, then all the attributes of Brahman, all-pervadingness, eternity, all-migthiness (scientifically spoken: exemption of space, time, causality) are ours; aham brahma asmi, i am Brahman, and consequently I am all-pervading (spaceless), eternal (timeless), almighty (not limited in my doing by causality). But these godly qualities are hidden in me, says Çarkara, as the fire is hidden in the wood, and will appear only after the final deliverance.
What is the cause of this concealment of my godly nature? The Upâdhi's, answers Çankara, and with this answer we pass from the esoteric to the exoteric psychology. The Upâdhi's are manas and indriya's prâna with its five branches, sûkshmam çariram,-in short, the whole psychological apparatus, which together with a factor changeable from birth to birth, with my karman, accompanies my Âtman in all his ways of migration, without infecting his godly nature, as the crystal is not infected by the colour painted over it. But wherefrom originate these Upâdhi's? They form of course part of the mâyâ, the great world-illustion, and like mâyâ they are based on our innate avidyâ or ignorance, a merely negative power and yet strong enough to keep us from our godly existence. But now, from where comes this avidyâ, this primeval cause of ignorance, sin, and misery? Here all philosophers in India and Greece and everywhere have