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universe through the body. Far from being its prison-house, the body is the liberator of the soul. He finds the historical prototype of his system in the Satadvaita (non-dualism of being) of Sankara's contemporary, Mandana Misra. "
In ordinary life we are always revising our views. Philosophy seeks a point of view which cannot be falsified. By absolute reality we mean that which has no possibility of falsification. One attribute of such absolute reality is existence; we can hardly deny that being is. An equally obvious attribute is consciousness, for its denial is itself consciousness. Existence is essentially consciousness. All beings—not only animals but also plants * and inorganic things—are conscious, although the consciousness may be in a subtle form, not organized as in a mind. A third attribute of reality is harmony. Harmony is recognized by immediate intuition in our apprehension of beauty, goodness, and logical validity, although an understanding of its nature may require subsequent analysis. Beauty, especially as seen in art, which has greater freedom and less agreement than other forms of expression, is essentially harmony. But beauty, which is jointly subjective and objective, is not for its own sake but is associated with morality; # the entire personality works in the appreciation of beauty, and what harmonizes with the entire personality is a source of aesthetic joy. Goodness is harmony--those ways of living which stabilize thought in harmony with truth. Truth is harmony (non-contradiction) plus presentation. Existence, con
34 Datta accepts the following doctrines attributed to Mandana Misra: explanation of error as seeing something other than where it is; distinction of two kinds of ignorance-not perceiving, removed by hearing, and otherwise perceiving, removed by meditation; account of ignorance as having the individual soul for its seat and Brahman for its object; acceptance of revelation as generating only indirect knowledge of Brahman; acceptance of a combination of works and knowledge as means of progress; possibility and desirability of liberation by works and knowledge without renunciation. But he rejects the following: absolutism of the Word (Sabdadvaita); possibility of ultimate release while in this life (jivanmukti).
35 Consciousness in plants is supposed to have been demonstrated experimentally by the Hindu botanist J. C. Bose.
36 For example, the nude nymphs of the Ajanta frescoes, where the exaltation of the faces precludes any immoral suggestion and expresses the artist's spirituality.
