Doctrine of Liberation in Indian Religion

Author(s): Shivkumarmuni
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION IN INDIAN RELIGIONS
Vedic tradition.
It has been pointed out by several scholars that the Yoga, Samkhya, Jainism and Buddhism were originally derived from the religious tradition of pre-historic munis and śramanas. Some characteristic ideas of these systems begin to appear in old Upanisads, obviously due to the impact of munis and śramañas. Referring to the great antiquity of Samkhya-Yoga ideas, Heinrich Zimmer has made the following remarkable observation :
"These ideas do not belong to the original stock of the Vedic Brahmanic tradition. Nor, on the other hand, do we find among the basic teachings of Samkhya and Yoga any hint of such a pantheon of divine Olympians, beyond the vicissitudes of earthly bondage, as that of the Vedic gods. The two ideologies are of different origin, Samkhya and Yoga being related to the mechanical system of the Jainas, which . . . . can be traced, in a partly historical, partly legendary way, through the long series of the Tirthankaras, to a remote, aboriginal, non-Vedic, Indian antiquity. The fundamental ideas of Samkhya and Yoga, therefore, must be immensely old. And yet they do not appear in any of the orthodox Indian texts until comparatively late-specifically, in the younger stratifications of the Upanisads and in the Bhagavadgītā, where they are already blended and harmonized with the fundamental ideas of the Vedic philosophy. Following a long history of rigid resistance, the exclusive and esoteric brahmana mind of the Aryan invaders opened up, at last, and received suggestions and influences from the native civilization. The result was a coalescence of the two traditions. And this is what produced, in time, the majestic harmonizing systems of medieval and contemporary Indian thought. "12
This shows that the traditional theory of the Vedic Aryan origin of Jaina ideas and śramana thought is untenable. Jainism, Buddhism, Yoga, Samkhya and ascetic ideas of old Upanisads were inspired by the ideas of munis and śramaņas who continued a very old tradition of non-Brahmanical Harappan antiquity. These ideas included the doctrines of samsāra, karma, yoga, dhyāna and mokṣa or nirvāņa. The legacy of the munis and śramaņas formed the dominant ideas in the formation of Indian culture.
12. Heinrich Zimmer, Philosophies of In.lia, p. 281.