Theories Of Parinama

Author(s): Indukala H Jhaveri
Publisher: Gujarat University

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The Samkhya-Yoga and the Jaina Theories of Pariņāma and in the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa III. 12.9 and Satapatha X. 6.3. where the 'brahman' and the omnipresent 'Atman' are identified.
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In this way from being merely a ritual act, yajña develops the significance of an act which symbolises world-creation and on the meditative side emerges into the mysticism of 'brahma' philosophy..
THE UPANIȘADS
(700 B.C. 600 B.C.)18
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The number of Upanisads that have come down to us is very great indeed, nearly two-hundred, but all are not equally old. A great many of them belong to comparatively recent times and hence cannot be used as sources for the history of the earlier Indian philosophy. We shall therefore consider, here, only those Upanisads - viz. Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Chandogya, Iśa, Kena, Aitareya, Katha, Mundaka, Śvetāśvatara, Praśna, - which are generally regarded as pre-buddhistic. Even amongst these, we shall for the most part, confine ourselves to their older portions only. 19
General remarks20
The subjective or the meditative way of thought already fore-shadowed in the Brahmanas in the conception of the inner
18 Das Gupta, 'A History of Indian Philosophy', Vol. I. p. 28. This is the generally accepted date of the earlier Upanisads.
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19 The classification of old and new stratá is given by Prof. Belvalkar, 'History of Indian Philosophy' p. 135. Cf also 'A Constructive Survey of Upanisadic Philosophy' by Ranade, p. 16. According to Deussen. and Winternitz, however, Isa and Kena belong to a period later than that of Aitareya, Taittiriya and Kauṣitaki.
The earlier Upanisads. as is well-known, do not teach one single, uniform doctrine, as Indian commentators have all along held. There is yet a great latitude, freedom of thought and want of a connected system. This is quite natural since the Upanisads are not the works. of a single hand or a single age but of a series of teachers existing