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CHAPTER 2
THE GENERAL CONCEPTION OF KNOWLEDGE
The Dominating Spirit
Philosophy in India does not begin as a science of ascertaining facts but as the quest for values. Fundamentally, it is Moksaśāstra, the science of salvation. The theory of knowledge is not an exception. The highest knowledge in the Upanişads is the knowledge of Brahman, the knowledge that leads to liberation 2 Maitreyi discards everything which does not help in attaining immortality.3 The discussion between Nārada and Sanatkumāra, 4 the distinction between Parāvidyā and Aparāvidyās and the avowed futility of the Vedic lore stress upon the same point repeatedly. It can be asked here, that according to the Upanişads Brahman is the only reality and therefore, knowledge of Brahman alone can be claimed as the knowledge of reality, and one may try thus, to assign a logical validity to the conception of Brahman, but this type of notion is a later development, related with the scholastic period. Upanisads in themselves did not aim at the logical validity. Their main objective was to show the path to liberation, which they hold, as the only standard of valuation. The Sankhya system promises complete cessation of all sorrows
1. Mundaka 1.1, 3-5 2. Isa 11 3. Brhad 2.4.3 4. Chāndogya 7.3 5. Mundaka 1.1.4 6. Ibid., 1.2.7; Gitā II, 46
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