Sramana Tradation

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 21

Sramaņa Tradition
and dressed up in a typical Brahmanic ideology and symbolism. It is possible that the Ksatriyas themselves sought to effect this synthesis between Śramaņic and Brāhmaṇic ideas. It may be recalled that the Gītā, spoken by a Kșatriya, similarly refers to a Rā jarși-paramparā and represents a synthetic point of view.10 It is also possible that while the Ksatriyas of the north-east were nearer the original Sramanic legacy, the rulers of the north-west or west like Pravābana Jaivali or Vasudeva Krsna, being nearer the home of Vedic orthodoxy, sought to reconcile the doctrines of Samsara with the world of ritualism.
In contrast to this Kaștriya wisdom relating to the birth, death and rebirth of man, the essence of the Brāhmanical doctrine of cosmic unity and its spiritual nature is to be found in the famous 6th chapter of the Chandogya. Vedic speculation had begun with the search for an ultimate cosmological principle, which came to be called 'Brahman and was successively indentified with such material principles such as anna, vāyu, or ákāśa. Ultimately this led the Upanisadic seers beyond a merely natural philosophy. They discovered gradually that the spirit in-dwelling man is nothing but the revelation of the ultimate cosmological principle. The Upanişadic philosophy thus culminated in spiritual monism which made the ultimate reality at once spiritual and divine and divinity at once personal and impersonal. Thus far it is a straight development from early Vedic philosophy. The occurrence of the word jīva in the present text is, however, noticeable since it is this word which became the common word for the soul in the
absequent period. What is more, we also find here a clear contrast between the undying soul and the perishable body. The non-spiritual world of names and forms is also found to be devalued as of an ephemeral nature.
Although the 7th chapter of the Chándogya develops the chara. cteristic Upanişadic view about ultimate bliss being available only in infinity (yo vai bhūmā tat sukham nālpe sukham asti), nevertheless, this section for the first time connects brahma jijñāsă with the realisation of the sorrowfulness of life. Narada declares that he is suffering misery from which he seeks deliverance through self-knowledge. “Such
10. IV.2,