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OUTLINES OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
Brahman, and all variety of things is mere error and illusion; so we have fanciful descriptions of the Samsâra, the way of the wandering soul up to the heaven and back to the earth, and again we read, that there is no Samsâra, no variety of souls at all, but only one Âtman, who is fully and totally residing in every being.
Çankara in these difficulties created by the nature of his materials, in face of so many contradictory doctrines, which he was not allowed to decline and yet could not admit altogether, has found a wonderful device, which deserves the attention, perhaps the imitation of the Christian dogmatists in their embarrassments. He constructs out of the materials of the Upanishads two systems, one esoteric, philosophical (called by him nirgunâ vidyâ, sometimes pâramârthikâ avasthâ) containing the metaphysical truth for the few ones, rare in all times and countries, who are able to understand it; and another exoteric, theological (sagunâ vidyâ, vyâvahârikî avasta) for the general public who want images, not abstract truth, worship, not meditation.
I shall now point out briefly the two systems, esoteric and exoteric, in pursuing and confronting them through the four chief parts, which Çankara's system contains, and every complete philosophical system must contain:
I. Theology, the doctrine of God or of the philosophical principle.
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