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OUTLINES OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
ture times; he distinguishes throughout an esoteric system (paravidya) containing a sublime philosophy, and an exoteric system (aparavidyâ) embracing under the wide mantle of a theological creed all the fanciful imaginings which spring in course of time from the original idealism. The exoteric system gives a description of the Brahman in the richest colours, treating it in part as the pantheistic soul of the world, and in part as a personal god; it gives a full account of the periodical creation and reabsorption of the world and of the never-ending circle of transmigration, etc. The esoteric system on the contrary maintains with Yâjñavalkya that Brahman, or the âtman is absolutely unknowable and attainable only by the concentration of yoga, that there is from the highest standpoint neither creation nor world, neither transmigration nor plurality of souls, and that complete liberation is reached by him and by him alone who has awakened to the beatific consciousness, expressed in the words of the Upanishads: " Aham Brahma asmi" (1 am Brahman).
Thus the Indians in their Vedanta possess a theological and philosophical system satisfying not only the wants of the people, but also the demands of a mind accessible to true knowledge only in its purest form.
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