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VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
whatever new points of view the Bauddha system is tested with reference to its probability, it gives way on all sides, like the walls of a well dug in sandy soil. It has, in fact, no foundation whatever to rest upon, and hence the attempts to use it as a guide in the practical concerns of life are mere folly. -Moreover, Buddha by propounding the three mutually contradictory systems, teaching respectively the reality of the external world, the reality of ideas only, and general nothingness, has himself made it clear either that he was a man given to make incoherent assertions, or else that hatred of all beings induced him to propound absurd doctrines by accepting which they would become thoroughly confused.--So that-and this the Sútra means to indicate-Buddha's doctrine has to be entirely disregarded by all those who have a regard for their own happiness.
33. On account of the impossibility (of contradictory attributes) in one thing, (the Gaina doctrine is) not (to be accepted).
Having disposed of the Bauddha doctrine we now turn to the system of the Gymnosophists (Gainas).
The Gainas acknowledge seven categories (tattvas), viz. soul (giva), non-soul (agiva), the issuing outward (âsrava), restraint (samvara), destruction (nirgara), bondage (bandha), and release (moksha)". Shortly it may be said that they acknowledge two categories, viz. soul and non-soul, since the five other categories may be subsumed under these two.
- They also set forth a set of categories different from the two mentioned. They teach that there are five so-called
1 Soul and non-soul are the enjoying souls and the objects of their enjoyment; âsrava is the forward movement of the senses towards their objects; samvara is the restraint of the activity of the senses; nirgara is self-mortification by which sin is destroyed; the works constitute bondage; and release is the ascending of the soul, after bondage has ceased, to the highest regions.-For the details, see Professor Cowell's translation of the Arhata chapter of the Sarvadarsanasamgraha.
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