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THE SYSTEMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
the Mimamsa, so did Badarayana comment on or rather composed aphorisms based on the Upanishads. 3. The Vedanta philosophy has its two chief supporters Shankara and Ramanuja. Both of them rest their doctrines on the Upanishads. In Shankara's opinion the Upanishads teach as follows: (a) Whatever is, is in reality one; there truly exists only one universal being called ब्रह्मन् or परमात्मन् (the highest self). This being is of an absolutely homogeneous nature; it is pure being or, which comes to the same, pure intelligence or thought ( a-3, 917). Intelligence or thought is not to be predicated of Brahma as its attribute but constitutes its substance. Brahma is not a thinking being, but thought itself. It is absolutely destitute of qualities; whatever qualities or attributes are conceivable can only be denied of it. But if nothing exists but one absolutely simple being, whence the appearance of the world by which we see ourselves surrounded and in which we ourselves exist as individual beings? The answer is that Brahma is associated with a certain power called माया or अविद्या This power cannot be called being', for being' is only Brahma; nor can it be called 'non-being' in the strict sense, for it at any rate produces the appearance of this world. It is in fact a principle of illusion, the undefinable cause owing to which there seems to exist a material world comprehending distinct individual existences. Being associated with this principle of illusion Brahma is enabled to project the appearance of the world, in the same way as a magician is enabled by his incomprehensible magical power to produce illusory appearances of animate and inanimate beings. HPT thus constitutes the 341GGT (the material cause) of the world, or if we wish to call attention to the circumstance that are belongs to Brahma as to we may
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