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Origins in Eternity
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these words are prevalent in all the branches of Sramana school namely Jainas, Buddhists, Ajivakas and Sankhya of Kapil Muni.
The Sramana outlook towards life, being introvert in nature was knows as Nivịtti Dharma, while that of Vedic Aryans being extrovert in nature was known as “Pravștti Dharma'. This basic difference of approach marked the advent of different theories in the field of philosophy. One sought to achieve the absolute by withdrawing from the worldly affairs, undergoing the process of ‘Pratikramaņa' (Returning back-to soul ). The other sought to achieve the same by undergoing the process of expansion which would evelope the whole universe by its theɔry of Advaita. Both these processes went on together for thousand of years influencing each other with the result that the absorbing power of the Aryan mind made it possible to evolve a synthesis wherein both became complimentary to each other and both became two aspects of the same composite culture. Even the great Sarkara, endowed with penetrating insight, acknowledged and proclaimed in his introduction to Gita-Bhäşya that both these processes were 'Vedokta', i. e, prescribed by Vedas. He said “Dvividho hi vedokto dharmaḥ pravștti lakṣano Nivștti lakşaņośca”, ( fafaat fe atat a#: 1 gafar get fagfa 72101157 ) meaning Vedas have prescribed two streams of religion one is action oriented and the other is retirement oriented.
Process of Synthesis
Evidently, with the emergence of Upanişada era ( about 800 B. C. and after ) the process of synthesis of non-aryan Śramana and Aryan Vedic cultures started. The social, econoiric and political interaction between Aryan settlers and their more advanced non-aryan brothers, enriched their knowledge of the former. They began to interpret their Vedas in the light of this enhanced knowledge. At this stage, a recapitulation of periodic division of early Indian history would be of some interest to understand the long
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