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TIE PRACTICAL PATH.
has been lost sight of by men, one set of whom, the scholars of modern fame, see in it nothing beyond the out-pouring of the immature mind of the race, and the other, the devout followers of the faith, a divine revelation in every syllable and word.
If the hypothesis evolved out in these pages is correct, neither of these theories can be said to be true, for the poet-sages were not intellectual babes, as they are supposed to be, nor were they inspired by an omniscient God. Hinduism in its very inception was an offshoot of Jainism, though it soon set itself up as an independent system of religion. In course of time it fell under demoniacal influence, the reaction against which is characterised by the intellectualism of the Upanishads and the metaphysical subtlety of the worldfamous Darshanas (schools or systems of philosophy)Nyaya, Vedanta and the like. Having set itself up as an independent system, it was naturally forced to regard Jainism as a hostile creed, and some of the Darshanus
one need only know Brahman to become . That,' but the Vedantist is unable to say why in spite of his knowing Brahman he has not as yet become Brahman. If the system had been placed on a scientific basis of thought, it would have been recognised that knowledge and realisation are two different things, even though knowledge is absolutely indispensable for the very commencement of the process of realisation of the great ideal of the soul. Here, also, we learn from Jainism that the Path'consists in Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct, but not in any of them singly or separately. Even Patanjali exhausts himself in generalities, and is not able to describe the nature and causes of the bondage of the soul; nor has he aught to say as to the why and the wherefore of the method he himself lays down for separating pure spirit from the undesirable companionship of matter.
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