Indian Antiquary Vol 24

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 43

FEBRUARY, 1895.]
BULLETIN OF THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA.
39
against the idealism of the Upanishads, and that Buddhism took its rise from it. He has carefully examined the resemblances, which have been before pointed out, between Buddhism and the doctrine of the Sankhya, and has indicated fresh ones. On both points his arguments have completely failed to convince me, and I still remain in the position of doubt which I formerly gave utterance to, and which Prof. Garbe has tried to remove. I do not see why the Sankhya should have been reduced to a system earlier than the doctrines which it combatted, and, on the other hand, granting that these systems grew up side by side, the original affinities of Buddhism are nearer to the Vedanta than to the Sankhya. The coincidences in detail and terminology, which are beyond denial, may, in this respect, be deceptive. Among all the ancient systems, the Sankhya alone elaborated a complete theory of finite things, and Buddhism must have borrowed this theory from it, as did all the Brahmanical systems, when they wished to speak of the material world, or the notions, which according to them, were a part of that world. But I doubt if it took from this quarter the absolute negation in which it logically ended, though it did not always and uniformly profess it. On this point, again, there is between Prof. Garbe and myself a little misunderstanding. By characterizing the Sankhya as "a logical system, hardly admitting development or profound modifications, .. above all with very little sentiment” (Les Religions de l'Inde, p. 70 of the French edition), I did not mean to imply that it not give sufficient importance to the theory of sensibility and of the external world (exactly the contrary is the truth, as Prof. Garbe very justly remarks), but only that it was not conducive to the enthusiasms and unrest of a mysticism without an object. And by Buddhist pessimism, which I cannot find in the Sânkhya, I meant its metaphysical pessimism. The Sankhya philosophy is pessimistio, to be sure, since life, for it, is a seduction and a slavery. But, though it wishes to escape from suffering, it does not wish to escape from all existence, nor from the continuance of the principle of personality, in which, on the contrary, it has the firmest faith, whilo the Vedanta and Buddhism both must needs end by denying itIn a word, now us then, I see in Buddhism more a Vedanta whioh despairs of the absolute than a Sankhya which has ended in scepticism. - I have just said that the Sankhya "hardly admits development or profound modifications." It, nevertheless, has undergone one modification, in the Yoga it has become theistic and devout. This latter system is, to pat it shortly, a kind of supplement to the Sankhya, which can be added to it or taken from it at will, and accepting the whole bulk of the ancient doctrine, 90 that the same name serves for both (Sárikhyapravachana being the title common to the Sárikhya and Yoga sútras), but bringing in a belief in a God, the Supreme Lord, and moreover a complete and often very grotesque discipline of the ascetic and spiritual life. It is from this side, without doubt, that the Yoga sátras have attracted the attention of the leaders of modern Hindu theosophy, since they recommend them as reading suitable for adepts, and have had an English translation made for their use.36 Besides this translation, which I have not seen, there is to be mentioned on the Yoga bat one essay by Pandit Bashyacharya on the age of Patañjali, the author of the Yogasutras. The essay is & curious mixture of exact information and of assertions heaped up in an uncritical fashion. The Paodit's results are that Patañjali, the grammarian and author of the Mahabháshya, is also the author of the Yogaautras; that he lived after Pâņini and before the last Buddha, about the tenth centary before our era ; that he was only the last editor of the Sútras, which are infinitely older, and that the allusions to Buddhism,
Critique, 19th April 1886, p. 803), but can scarcely go so far. In the twelfth century it was universally admitted that
darsana must rest on a altra, and I can hardly conceive how at that time snob an impoetore could havo been introduced into the schools and gained general acoeptance.
* The Yoga shtra of Patanjali, translated by Prof. Manlal Nabhubhai Dwivedi ; published at the expense of the Theosophical Society of Bombay. Among the publications of the Society I may mention further the translations of the Bhagavadgita, the Prabodhachandrodaya, the Bastakhyakarid, tbe Atmabodha of Sankara, reprints of the Upinishada translated in the Bibliotheca Indica, etc. From the point of view of literary Arebæology there is nothing to be said against this. But as reading for practionl life and for odification, it must produce e curious effect on come mind..