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Science of the Absolute
Science of the Absolute Introduction to Part 2 (a)
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AN INTEGRATED SCIENCE OF THE ABSOLUTE
INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO (a)
We read as follows:
Now the God is, I suppose, the cause for the intelligible Gods of beauty, existence, perfection and oneness, connecting these and illuminating them with a power that works for good. These accordingly Helios bestows on the intellectual Gods also since he has been appointed by the Good to rule and govern them, even though they come forth and came into being together with him, and this was, I suppose, in order that the cause which resembles the Good may guide the intellectual Gods to blessings for them all, and may regulate all things according to pure reason.
But this visible disc also, third in rank, is clearly for the objects of sense perception the cause of preservation., and this visible Helios is the cause of the visible Gods of just as many blessings as we mighty Helios bestows on the intellectual Gods." (1)
Philosophy in India has not had the same disadvantage because there was never an Inquisition breathing down one's neck. Nonetheless orthodoxies are found and still persist in the name of Vedism and Aryan supremacy. A close examination of these features reveals to us the basic fact that human nature is capable of cruelty and exclusiveness anywhere in the world.
We read as follows:
Now then, Yajnavalkya was about to commence another mode of life.
"Maitreyi." said Yajnavalkya, Lo, verily, I am about to wander forth from this state.
Behold! Let me make a final settlement for you and that Katyayani.'
Then spoke Maitreyi: 'If now, sir, this whole earth filled with wealth were mine, would I now thereby by immortal?'
"No, no!" said Yajnavalkya. 'As the life of the rich, even so would be your life be. Of immortality, however, there is no hope through wealth".
Then spake Maitreyi: 'What should I do with that through which I may not be immortal? What you know, sir - that, indeed, explain to me.'
Then spake Yajnavalkya: 'Though, verily, you, my lady, were dear to us, you have increased your dearness. Behold, then, lady, I will explain it to you. But, while I am expounding, do you seek to ponder thereon.'
Then spake he: 'Lo, verily, not for the love of a husband is a husband dear, but for the love of the soul (atman) a husband is dear,
Lo, verily, not for the love of a wife is a wife dear, but for the love of the soul is a wife dear, Lo, verily, not for the love of all is all dear, but for the love of the soul all is dear.
Lo, verily, it is the soul (atman) that should be seen, that should be hearkened to, that should be thought on, that should be pondered on, o Maitreyi." (4)
We read the following about his philosophy:
There is a type of abstraction long recognized in Vedanta by Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhva in their elaborate systems of philosophy. They begin with such considerations as human suffering and its remedy, resulting in happiness, bliss, liberation, emancipation or extinction as the word nirvana might imply. European philosophers, when they find Eastern philosophers assuming suffering for their starting point, too readily classify them as pessimists. They fail to recognize that every philosophy has to have certain starting assumptions. Sin is the starting point for Christian philosophers and missionaries who want to convert everyone to their religion.
If the mention of sin and Satan were prohibited more than half of Christian literature would be consigned to the flames. For Buddhism on the other hand it is enough to deny there is suffering in this world for the Buddhist to become confused in systematically developing his polemics. Likewise the Communist can also be confused in his effort to convert others if one should refuse to recognize an exploited proletariat.
These items can be broadly divided into two categories: those belonging to the world of intelligibles and those belonging to the world of visibles. More simply they can be called conceptual or perceptual values. The Good of Plato belongs to a world of intelligibles while the Nous of hylozoisin refers directly to the perceptible order of reality. Paganism is distinguished from Christianity by its adherence to hierophanies rather than to a one-and-only God excluding all others. In India the Vedic world of the devas with its emphasis on mantras (sacred utterances) is full of rich conceptual content. Elementals also enter into the Vedic world of ritualistic sacrifice (yajna) where each phenomenal aspect has its corresponding hypostatic divinity and its elemental counterpart of a hierophantic sacredness.
The soul of man circulates between these value worlds, alternately going from one to the other according to the kind of mental or physical sacrifice (yajna) he performs.
We read as follows:
Below and above spread its branches, nourished by the modalities of nature (gunas), sense-values its buds, and downwards also there are ramified roots which bind to action in. the world of men.
Then (alone) that path is to be sought, treading which they do not return again (thinking) I seek refuge in that Primordial Man from whom of old streamed forth active manifestations." (9)
What is attempted to be clarified by the above verses is the structural complexity presented by the world of values. In the first instance there is reference to Vedism deriving its values from the world of the bright gods (devas). Those who do not believe in propitiating Indra or Varuna, the representatives of phenomenal or elemental forces in nature, fail in making appropriate ends and means tally in their worlds where actions are meant to bring such ends and means together so as to yield a satisfactory benefit.
Clothed in allegorical language this image of the asvattha tree actually taking nourishment through its aerial and terrestrial roots has clear structural implications which can be analyzed in the light of what we have developed in the foregoing pages.
The principle of sacrifice found in the heart of all men can be considered as the vertical parameter joining ends and means in this two- sided world of values ranged at different levels of the double tree or hierarchy. In conclusion it is most important to note that the whole of this structural edifice must finally be abolished before the path of really genuine absolutist spirituality could emerge. The person who does this thinks in terms of an emancipation so final and lasting that he will never again be taken in by the bondage of cyclic phenomenal alternation between values here in life or those of a "hereafter". It is the sword of detachment and renunciation cutting the hard roots of entanglement whereby final emancipation results. Vedic relativism can only be fully transcended by a radical absolutism.
The sacred and profane constitute a pair of dual factors giving to the spirituality of the Vedas a character based on vidhi (obligatory rule) and nisheda (prohibition).
In the Bhagavad Gita (XIII.20) we read the following:
This same kind of revaluation of duality is seen in almost every chapter of the Gita. This process begins directly in the fifth chapter in verses 4 and 5 and concludes there with the categorical statement that he who sees the unity of Samkhya and Yoga alone truly sees. The purushottama or paramount person of Chapter 15 results from the two other subordinate purushas being brought together into revalued unity. Such a purusha is represented as the masculine bijaprada or bestower of the seed and the feminine yoni or source or womb. Both these are identified with the same person in an androgynous fashion as we find in (XIV.3,4):
The objection against the duality of the Samkhya is remedied here by having recourse to an androgynous analogy instead of retaining the duality of the two sexes. We cannot say the artificiality implied in the duality is completely abolished even here. On final analysis the notion of the Absolute cannot tolerate even a shadow of duality if it is to be given its fully normalized status. Within the limits of discourse such analogies are used as aids for linguistic purposes only.
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As there are many pages of such delicate logic we cannot within the limits of space here examine each of the structural aspects implied in his notion of a symbolic body (linga sarira). As the Brahma Sutras are also called sariraka-mimamsa or a critique based on the agent within the body, these structural analyses of the components of the panchapranas or five vital tendencies immediately implied in the notion of the living body have a special importance in the Science of the Absolute. It is not therefore out of place for us to refer to Sankara's commentary dealing with both the subtle body and the vital tendencies. This will give the reader a rough idea of what is presupposed by Sankara. He formulated the notion of the sukshma sarira or subtle body, only to have it made into a fetish for worship by his later followers, who could hardly see the schematic or structural status intended by Sankara. The vagueness of Sankara here is in reality preferable to the cut-and-dried and ready-made versions of later disciples who so easily used it as a cliché. We read first in II.3.47 where the seventeen-fold aggregate is referred to. This aggregate is "the subtle body consisting of the ten sense-organs, the five pranas, manas, and buddhi." (13)
Sankara begins his commentary on this as follows:
This same section of the Brahma Sutras dealing with the vital tendencies covers over twenty sutras. Sometimes the discussion is meant to bring out the relative importance of the various senses or vital tendencies as in the example of the well-known "colloquy of the gods" where Indra is the most superior god, but not superior to the Absolute which is more directly related to the senses and their functioning. Without the Absolute none of the senses can. function.
The Breath is the same as the chief vital tendency in the above quotation. Whether the usual pranas and the chief prana belong to the same order or not is another question. Similar distinctions are made between the elementals, sometimes treated in a threefold fashion as earth, fire and water, Even so their perceptual and conceptual status is a matter of discussion. The whole section therefore has to be read together and understood so as to reconstruct a string of pentads or other unitary elements belonging together and representing a psycho-physical entity referring to the Self. This Self here is not to be mixed up with other descriptions found in other Upanishads. It is meant specially to reveal a mechanism underlying the taking of bodies and discarding them. Of the two sides involved in such a process the dual treatment of matter and mind is not acceptable to the spirit of the Upanishads. Both matter and mind become so pure that the material elements follow the spiritual ones in the process of attaining one body from another.
The Bhagavad Gita (XV.10) points out this as one of the most difficult questions to visualize and says "this the foolish cannot see; the wisdom-eyed can see." In the next verse it points out that one must be a person of perfected works or a kritatma in order to see the subtle mechanism involved. All this reveals the double-sided nature of the entity we are concerned with. It should not be confused with the libido, ego, id or subliminal self of Western psychology. Neither should it be confused with other graphic portraits of the same entity found in other sections of the Upanishads, such as the image of the chariot and horses found in the Svetasvatara Upanishad (II.6) etc. The change from body to body, if assumed to be taking place, has to do so at the very core of absolute reality where duality exists in a most pure and schematic form, before even the emergence of name and form. In other words it has to belong to a context where algebra and geometry cannot be thought of separately.
This neutral matrix of consciousness where forms crystallize and names are conceived touches the deepest stratum of reality and fully participates in the Absolute. Each of the various pentads has to belong to the same neutral order and all of them have to be strung together as pearls before the eight cities can cover all the value-factors belonging to the contemplative context of spirituality. Only then can they enter into homogeneous relationship with their own objective counterparts in the enjoyable world. Both the enjoyer and the enjoyed have to belong to the same context and each pentad is a level ranging from cognition to emotion, where every symbolic Self consisting of eight pentad cities works out its own salvation. There are two references to the higher and lower nature of the Absolute and the eight fold structure of the contemplative Self.
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The first found in the Bhagavad Gita (VII.4) says:
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There is also a deeper division between the essences of what is objective and subjective within the scope of the vertical axis itself. This complex situation requires penetrating analysis in the light of an absolutist epistemology, where subjectivity and objectivity belong together without any traces of duality at the core of the normative notion of the Absolute. Narayana Guru in Arivu (Knowledge, or the Epistemology of Gnosis) has attempted such an analysis using the same four-fold structure with a double implication brought fully and analytically to view.
(b) We find secondly the argument consisting of a series of rhetorical questions making them absurd and implying a unitive reality lurking behind the absurdity suggested in each question.
Although there is something Socratic in the method here, more positive confirmations are here and there interspersed in the composition especially after Verse 11. The beginning is ontological but the concluding verses are neither ontological nor teleological, immanent nor transcendent, material nor spiritual, but neutrally unitive.
Knowledge as a central personal experience of the human being is related to the Platonic world of the Intelligibles on the one hand, and to the material world of prime matter or the entelecheia of Aristotle on the other. Alternating ascending and descending dialectics are very deftly employed by the author, making this composition a masterpiece of contemplative workmanship, unrivalled in literature anywhere.
Due allowance must be made by the English reader for any slight originality or concession made for the sake of English idiom; this has been kept at a minimum as far as possible. Lastly, the principle of double negation employed in Verse 7 (marked by an asterisk) is to be noticed. Intellectual straining, it must be borne in mind, will not make for definiteness of meaning here. The verses must be read in a contemplative mood in order to enter into the full spirit and meaning intended by Narayana Guru.
5. ARIVU (KNOWLEDGE)
1
This which is known here, is none other
On reflection, knowledge it becomes;
As knowledge is one with this ever,
Nought else there is but knowledge alone.
2
Without knowledge this could not be,
Even granting the known to have reality;
Should but this one knowledge be wanting
What knowing could there be for knowledge; none such we can know.
3
Beyond the measure of knowledge, whatever we can know
As knowledge even that too shines;
As within consciousness here, dream abides.
So comprised in knowledge is all that is there.
4
If knowledge be all-filling,
Non-knowledge, where could it abide?
Going after knowledge from here,
As knowing that there, where could it reside?
5
If from knowledge no fading out could be
And knowledge alone is, to where could all this descend?
Knowledge is not known. here
When known both become one and the same.
Prior to knowledge "What?" if we should ask
Other than knowledge nothing here is found;
The unknowing, what limitation could it have?
And as for knowledge, there is nothing here to see.
7
Of knowledge we are aware; of its absence
We have no awareness here; which in which abides
Though known here; not as knowledge do we un-know
When we ourselves should here regard.
8
Even from the day that knowledge ever was, this too has been; (But) how Could this stand if knowledge alone was real?
Of knowledge no disjunct category there is;
(And) whatever could there be if but knowledge were not?
9
There is a habitation for knowledge
None distinct there is for the known;
If there is knowledge as an item distinct
How could the known enter thereinto?
10
Consumed by the known, all will be gone.
What in knowledge is it that is not known?
And as for knowledge, how could it arise at all?
11
As the knower of knowledge, what makes known here
That we do become; if this is conceded
What kind of knowledge, and how comes
The known; and what kind could it be?
Yourself is what is known as knowledge;
By putting down your own knowledge, it becomes the known.
The known is thus twofold: one conscious of knowing
And the other not conscious of the same.
13
Knowledge too, likewise in its turn proceeding
Became reflected in the knower once again
And one spark of knowledge falling into this the known
Into five shreds it became split up.
14
If one could still be cognizant of oneself
As the knower of knowledge, still knowing knowledge to be all,
The one that is knowledge and the one that is the knower
Within that which is known, six and eight, too, they become.
15
Corresponding likewise with this known
Knowledge too seven and one makes eight;
Knowledge is thus specifically distinguished
As also the known, when separated one from one
6. THE STRUCTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF PRAYER
7. DAIVADASAKAM
1
O God, as ever from there keep watch on us here,
Never letting go your hand; You are the great Captain,
And the mighty steamship on the ocean,
Of change and becoming is Your foot.
Counting all here, one by one,
When all things touched are done with,
Then the seeing eye (alone) remains,
So let the inner self in You attain its rest.
Food, clothes, and all else we need
You give to us unceasingly,
Ever saving us, seeing us well-provided.
Such a one, You, are for us our only Chief.
As ocean, wave, wind and depth
Let us within see the scheme
Of us, of nescience,
Your glory and You.
You are creation, the Creator,
And the magical variety of created things.
Are You not, 0 God,
Even the substance of creation too!
You are Maya,
The Agent thereof and its Enjoyer too;
You are that Good One also who removes Maya too,
To grant the Unitive State!
You are the Existent; the Subsistent and the Value-Factor Supreme
You are the Present and the Past,
Add the Future is none else but You.
Even the spoken Word, when we consider it, is but You alone.
You state of glory that fills
Both inside and outside
We for ever praise!
Victory be, 0 God, to You!
Victory to You! Great and Radiant One!
Ever intent upon saving the needy.
Victory to You, perceptual Abode of Joy!
Ocean of Mercy, Hail!
In the ocean of Your Glory
Of great profundity
Let us all, together, become sunk,
To dwell there everlastingly in Happiness!
8. SOME STRUCTURAL IMPOSSIBILITIES
In order to bring out the structure of absolute or pure consciousness where probabilities and possibilities exist together, let us put together at random a series of questions and try to answer them. Let us say a modern man is asked the question: do you believe in science? His answer will be 'yes'. If you then ask, are you also a believer? The answer will most likely be 'no'. The reason for this is because scepticism belongs to scientific inquiry where doubt is given primacy over belief. There is a contradiction here wherein even the scientist is caught.
When we think of a simpler case of asking a man who is called John Brown if he believes he is John, Brown, or John Brown and what the factual correspondence is between the names and his person, a structural difficulty of another nature comes into view. His surname belongs generically to his ancestors and can be anything from a colour to an object while his Christian name is specific and particular as the choice made by his parents. It often belongs not to a factual context but to a scriptural one. Wittgenstein has dealt in detail with these kinds of word-games in his "Philosophical Investigations". In Eastern countries the convention about names might be the other way around, but the total structural implications between the nominal and factual aspects remain the same.
If we now take Eddington´s example of four men sitting on four different chairs understood as belonging to the four different structural orders, it is evident that a heavy man cannot sit on an abstract chair. Likewise a nominal chair requires a nominal man to sit on it without absurdity. Similarly a perceptual man belonging to the world of science has to have his own physical chair if he is to avoid a major or minor catastrophe. Thus facts and beliefs have to be structurally matched in duplicate quaternion fashion. If this law of structural composability or compatibility is violated we have unscientific literature, whether in physical science or religion. What is true in a laboratory may not be true in a seminary, but each can be made into a nominalizing factor for the other so that the scientific certitude required for a unified Science of the Absolute might result.
9. A FINER CIRCULATION OF VALUES
We read in order from IX, 20-21 and VIII, 24-25:
The two divisions of the vertical axis are here clearly indicated. In III.1.13 the neutral ground of origin belonging to Yama, the god of death, where everything is re-melted and reshaped by fire is now referred to. The ascending and the descending paths are also sufficiently indicated.
We read the following:
We read as follows:
Next we find a subtle equation of three distinct concepts called water, faith and man established in a passage of Sankara. He appeals to the syntactical coherence of the text and also relies on a semantic unity. The lakshanartha (indirect meaning) argument is also appealed to in the case of a man as valiant as a lion being himself called a lion. We see here that even nominalism is resorted to in the example of men standing on a platform. Here man is only qualitative and faith and water are related by association of cause and effect in the context of Vedic ritual.
The schematic status of the process is further evident by the use of the term "conjunction" in the following quotation (III.1.26) pertaining to the same process of a descent of the soul reaching from the moon to plant life. Although schematism requires a homogeneous ground where classes of entities belong together, many layers of such schematic abstractions, some more concrete than others, are epistemologically permissible. The jump from one layer of abstraction to another is negligible, because it is meant merely to explain what is concrete in terms of the abstract as both belonging to the same Absolute.
We read as follows:
In respect of the negative vertical aspect of values we have this interesting reference to the seven hells in III.1.15-16. To avoid any contradiction or duplication it is best to place them in a negative scale on the vertical axis as seven points of stability in the value-world. Chitragupta who is in charge of one of these hells called Raurava is not a rival to Yama, but as Sankara points out, he is a superintendent in a lower place in the hierarchy. Sankara also approves of such a schematic treatment.
We read as follows:
10. AXIOLOGY IN GREEK DRAMA
In the regions around the Mediterranean where oriental caravans and Phoenician traders met for many centuries it is not surprising to find ideas of equal axiological importance. We have already contributed several essays related to such cultural aspects. The dialectics of Romance and Tragedy are not limited to the Romantic movement resulting from the Renaissance, but reach back to the days of the great tragedies of Sophocles, Euripides, and others, Even before this era of drama there were the mysteries of Eleusis and the Satyr-dramas where Dionysos was represented. This great god of frenzy refuses to belong to the respectable side of life and the dithyramb or poem in free style accords better with his life of abandonment. Pure vertical values come into interplay here, implying a double-sided expression divided by the principle of Death. Rising from the dead is also found at the basis of Christian dogma and it derives its support from the same double-sided life-values found in Dionysos.
We read the following from a modern student of Greek drama:
We read as follows:
We read as follows:
Similarly the effects wrought by the Dionysian seemed "titan-like and barbaric" to the Apollonian Greek; while at the same time he could not conceal from himself that he too was inwardly related to these overthrown Titans and heroes. Indeed, he had to recognize even more than this: despite all its beauty and moderation, his entire existence rested on a hidden substratum of suffering and of knowledge, which was again revealed to him in the Dionysian.
And Lo! Apollo could not live without Dionysos! The "titan-like" and the "barbaric" were in the last analysis as necessary as the Apollonia" (30)
Even when there happen to be two heroes, or a hero and a heroine as in works not tragically conceived in the classical sense but in a more liberalized version, the interest has to be centered on both of them unitively enclosed in brackets if drama is to fulfil its high role as it did in the hands of the great classical masters of Greece. Hugo's "Hernani" has Dona Sol, the heroine, as his dialectical counterpart and the interest centers round these two personalities taken together. They are to be looked upon as the obverse and reverse of the same soul. When the midnight hour strikes in the last scene of the last act we find Don Ruy Gomez rising to truly tragic heights representing Fate or Providence standing for the Absolute in the lives of men. The requirements of a tragedy, which Aristotle referred to in his definition, apply equally to this part of Hugo's creation as to the best examples of Greek tragedy. Aristotle's definition of tragedy is given in his "Poetics" (6:25-30) as follows:
11. THE SELF AS ORGANON
On first sight these appear to have nothing to do with axiology and its circulation in consciousness, but on closer examination it is seen that knowledge has a high value. The means of attaining knowledge through reason is therefore to be included under the overall title of axiology. The different kinds of reasoning processes used by the thinking Self in attaining the Absolute also come within its scope. This is exactly what Chapter 7 is concerned with. The Self is treated as something corresponding to the notion of an organon, the title given by Aristotle's disciples to his treatises on logic. Such an organon is treated as a reasoning instrument, consisting of some kind of absolute thinking substance having its counterpart in abstract and general thought processes.
The Self can thus be understood as corresponding to the notion of an organon in the context of various reasoning processes reviewed in the seventh chapter. It is also justified and in keeping with the nature of this work as a whole to call the Self of the sixth chapter an instrument belonging to action in a generalized sense.
When pragmatic thought builds bridges and skyscrapers the brute aspect of action gains ground and we move away more and more from a verticalized world of values into a horizontalized one of technological processes. Narayana Guru does not treat instrumentalism in this way, but is more in line with Bergson who concluded at the end of his "Two Sources of Morality and Religion" that "the universe is a machine for the making of gods." This is a verticalized version of instrumentalism. John Dewey also accepts this position, but goes further in the same direction - perhaps more than is really justifiable. The rational processes of thought, according to Dewey, should have no metaphysical implications at all, but instead should have a backward reference to the instrument. In a certain sense, this attitude is justifiable, but it can be exaggerated as Dewey has done.
Dewey writes:
12. ONE ABSOLUTE SUBSTANCE
But a belated recognition of the claims of a notion resembling substance is found in III.2. 7,11 and 15 of the Brahma Sutras. The ambiguity is only abolished with great difficulty by Sankara as we can gather after carefully reading his commentary.
"Through them (i.e. the nadis) he moves forth and rests in the surrounding body." (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad II.1.19).
The qualitative nature of the space intended to be fixed is accomplished by an appeal by Sankara to semantics and syntactics The distinction between the space in the nadis or elsewhere such as the heart is treated as having no importance when space is looked at qualitatively:
We read:
"To that sacred presence of the Guru
Who, like a mirror-reflected city sees within
The universe, through Maya as in sleep
And who in wakeful state understands as presented
To the senses, his own non-dual Self
To such a south-facing form of Dakshinamurti
I do now prostrate."
13. DISSOLVING THE PARADOX
These are all secondary and are merely generalizations of many possible stages in the process of becoming more fundamental and occupying the negative vertical axis are the prajna (the intelligent Self), karana (the causal Self) sutratma (serially conceived Self) and the subtle body known under the names of lingasarira or sukshmasarira. These last two entities referring to the subtle body are composed of the senses (indriyas), mind (manas), intelligence (buddhi) and the five pranas (vital tendencies). This combination forms the subtle body and is found in different contexts of this present work.
This is formed (Brahman) - whatever is different from the wind and the atmosphere. This is mortal; this is stationary; this is actual. The essence of this formed, mortal, stationary, actual (Brahman) is (yonder) (sun) which gives forth heat, for that is the essence of the actual.
Now the formless (Brahman) is the wind and the atmosphere. This is immortal, this is moving, this is the yon. The essence of this unformed, immortal, moving, yonder (Brahman) is the Person in that sun-disk, for he is the essence of the yonder." (41)
The postulation of these two Brahmans so openly referred to has offered a major challenge to composers of sutras like Jaimini and Badarayana and commentators like Sankara. In spite of the combined efforts of these teachers the relation between these two Brahmans has remained a major puzzle.
The question is not only puzzling to the author of the sutras but Sankara also seems not quite sure about establishing a unity between the two Brahmans and abolishing the paradox. We read the following in III.2.22:
He who this pair conjointly (saha) knows,
With non-knowledge passing over death,
With knowledge wins the immortal.
Becoming (sambhuti) and destruction (vinasa)-
He who this pair conjointly (saha) knows,
With destruction passing over death,
With becoming, wins the immortal." (44)
In the above passage ubhayam-saha (both taken together or conjointly) is a methodological indication of primary importance. The higher and lower Brahmans, when subjected to the same method, will not be abolished in favour of emptiness. Instead a unitive absolute value results from the cancellation of the two factors. In mathematics four divided by four is not zero but one. It is this vertical operation that matters in the context of the Absolute.
We should not be carried away by the colourful nature of the description. What is important from a scientific standpoint is to be able to recognize the mathematical equation between two aspects of the absolute Self. Such an equation is meant to be unitively understood, yielding one final certitude. So when the paradox drops by cancellation of counterparts and when duality vanishes we arrive at the notion of a pure neutral Absolute.
14. THE STRUCTURAL PATTERN EMERGING TO VIEW
Footnotes
Science of the Absolute Introduction to Part 2 (b)
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AN INTEGRATED SCIENCE OF THE ABSOLUTE
INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO (b)
15. TWO WAYS OF APPROACHING THE ABSOLUTE
How two philosophers like Ramanuja and Sankara can both be justified in their interpretation of the Upanishads has been a puzzle to many students of Vedanta. The word visesha refers to attributes and when applied to the notion of the Absolute, a way of speculation is revealed presenting the character of the Absolute through many and varied attributes, held together by this normative notion
The Nyaya-Vaiseshika school of philosophy derives its name from this distinction by giving primacy to the attributes of the Absolute. Unlike the Brahma Sutras it does not give to Brahman a first place originating from the sastras (texts). Thus we see the Nyaya-Vaiseshika philosophy coming under heavy fire in some of Sankara's commentaries of the Brahma Sutras. In respect of orthodoxy however, we cannot see how Gautama and Kanada (the so called founders of Nyaya and Vaiseshika respectively) tend to minimize at all the claims of the Vedas nor the need for emancipation through true wisdom. The only reason why each is treated as a persona non grata by Sankara and other Vedantins must be because they give primacy to the attributes of the Absolute as their starting point for purposes of philosophical speculation. This approach from the known to the unknown is however more natural and in keeping with a scientific spirit.
16. A RUNNING REVIEW OF THE SIX DARSANAS
A) THE NYAYA PHILOSOPHY OF GAUTAMA
Disagreement in principle arises when one misunderstands (nigraha sthana) or does not understand at all" (6)
In both these sets enumerated above it is not hard to see that the tallying of two aspects in one-one correspondence is important for Nyaya reasoning.
I. STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF THE NYAYA PHILOSOPHY
II. THE FOURFOLD CORRELATES
We read the following:
This exalted goal is said to be attained by thoroughly realizing the four subjects established in the Nyaya Sutra, namely: (1) the thing to be avoided (i.e. pain), (2) its cause (i.e. desire and ignorance), (3) absolute avoidance, (4) and the means of such avoidance (i.e. true knowledge) which is to be secured. These four steps are considered the prime prerequisites for the attainment of life's highest reward." (9)
The presumption in the last item that knowledge accomplishes absolute avoidance of suffering is one which is fully valid, intuitive and dialectical in its import. It is not ratiocinative nor discursive. Socrates in the "Philebus" also points out there is a state beyond mere pleasure and pain.
We read:
Protarchus: Very true.
S: And do not forget that there is such a state; it will make a great difference in our judgment of pleasure whether we remember this or not.
And I should like to say a few words about it.
P: What have you to say?
S: Why, you know that if a man chooses the life of wisdom, there is no reason why he should not live in this neutral state.
P: You mean to say that he may live neither rejoicing nor sorrowing?
S: Yes; and if I remember rightly, when the lives were compared, no degree of pleasure, whether great or small was thought to be necessary to him who chose the life of wisdom and thought." (10)
2. THE VAISESHIKA PHILOSOPHY OF KANADA
The system has also been called Auluka which comes from uluka, 'owl'. This name is said to be descriptive of Kanada's habit of meditating all day and seeking his food during the night like an owl. It is the common. practice of yogis to sleep by day and practice by night; so it is quite possible that Kanada followed this routine of living." (11)
The specificatory factors have an ascending relational gradation, with all four factors being present in earth and only one (touch) in air. When the Bhagavad Gita (VII.8) refers to water as having the characteristic of sapidity or taste, it unmistakably recognized this structural feature. Another expression in the Gita (VII.9) is "I am the holy fragrance of the earth". This too shows a recognition of the Vaiseshika point of view.
Sound (sabda) is the specific characteristic element of the fifth bhuta which is akasa. In an extended sense electromagnetic phenomena including light waves are another characteristic of akasa. Wave propagation is a factor common to light and sound, and in an extrapolated sense, although the Vaiseshikas did not actually say so, light may be said to be the very essence of akasa, because it is independent of all ponderable media.
The atom and akasa, one with parts to be eliminated and the other with its dispersion to be countered by the mind, belong together on final synthesis. Narayana Guru suggests this in Verse 96 of the Atmopadesha Satakam when he says, "The atom and the infinite as being and non-being loom from either side". What is important for us to note here is the reciprocity between these two bipolar or antinomian non-material and eternal factors. The intermediate specificities of the other elementals exist in a graded ambivalent fashion within these two limiting cases. This reveals a unitive structural pattern for all the elementals treated together, while remaining capable of being equated with the senses as well as with the mind and the Self behind the senses.
I. THE TWO SETS OF CATEGORIES
Abhava (non-being), which has been added as the seventh category by later Vaiseshika philosophers, is at the upper limit of the vertical axis while dravya is at the lower. In the Vaiseshika Sutras (I.I.4) we find the categories stated, except for abhava:
2. THE UNITS OF ULTIMATE EXISTENCE
III. THE SOUL AND SALVATION
When we come to be question of salvation as understood by the Vaiseshikas, we find it is not accompanied by any religious practices at all. It is the simple and direct result of scientific or philosophical understanding. Here again the attitude is such that it should receive the full approval of even Sankara if we judge him by his own philosophical writings. Sankara also has his own theory of pancikarana (quintuplication of the elementals) like the Vaiseshikas. He too tries to explain scientifically the manifested world resulting from the elementals. He must have derived this theory, in part at least, from previous schools of philosophy. In both cases there is nothing in either theory that goes against the spirit of the Upanishads. If later Vedantins have condemned the Vaiseshikas it must be because they attributed to them a unilateral approach giving more importance to effects than to causes. They are often called asambhavadins and satkaryavadins both terms meaning "giving primacy to effects over causes". The actual sutras when scrutinized do not seem to justify any such unilateralism. In formulating their definitions they only insisted on specific characteristics (lingas). This insistence on a diagnostic approach has been misunderstood as implying a primacy of effect over cause.
When we apply the same attitude to the question of salvation we find again that they have been misunderstood.
We can see that a relationship between specific and generic attributes is what is important here. Such authentic definitions need a lot of scrutinizing before they will reveal all their subtle implications. With the imponderable atoms and the two sets of categories reviewed above it is just possible to see a resemblance to Monadology. The Monad of monads is always present side by side with the atomic units. Their common relations have to reveal a unitive pattern resulting from the two sets of antinomies when cancelled against each other. It is true that such an operation is complicated, but if the operation can be performed by the Vaiseshika philosophy it will reveal the true nature of the Absolute by cancellation of counterparts. The Upanishads declare that a knower of the Absolute becomes the Absolute. In the light of such a bold claim, emancipation, according to the Vaiseshikas, is also a corollary of the dicta, "knowledge is power", and "the truth shall make you free". There is nothing in the Vaiseshika philosophy therefore to be either scorned or laughed at.
3. THE SAMKHYA PHILOSOPHY OF KAPILA
It is usual to speak of the Samkhyas as believers in tattvas (first principles). The two antinomian first principles of purusha (spirit) and prakriti (nature), with various degrees of duality or reciprocity, are basic to this school. The other important feature is the dynamism of the three gunas (nature modalities) called sattva (pure-clear), rajas (active-passionate) and tamas (inert-dark). This is one of the greatest contributions made by the Samkhyas to the rest of Indian philosophy. The gunas are both evolving and evolved, and have a virtuality and an actuality that is difficult to fix. It is by their dynamism and interaction that the manifested world can be traced. This dynamism seems to imply further both an expansion and contraction as well as centripetal and-centrifugal tendencies.
The basis and actor, and also the various (mental) instruments, the several and varied movements (activities), and fifth, the divine factor;
Whatever action a man undertakes by the body, speech and mind, justifiable or the opposite, these five are its causes." (19)
Elsewhere in the Gita a whole chapter (XVIII) is devoted to a dialectical revaluation of the Samkhya. This attitude on the part of the author of the Gita shows he might have been trying to answer those holding this view or who were at least the forerunners of the point of view of the Brahma Sutras. The Gita honours the Samkhya again by devoting a whole chapter to the three gunas and their mode of operation. prakriti and purusha are also brought more intimately together, to abolish any objectionable duality between them. They are retained for purposes of reference. All this shows that we are treading on highly controversial ground. The jig-saw puzzle refuses to fit together into a coherent whole. This must be because of the heterogeneous origin as such of the tattvas.
The tattva, mahat (the principle of all-comprehensive intelligence), refuses to take its place under the evolving or evolved principles of natura naturans and natura naturata. It represents all-comprehensive intelligence, but sometimes it is spoken of as an "evolute" of prakriti. As a principle it has a very subtle logical status and as such could belong to the context of a darsana or vision wherein high abstractions and generalizations exist together, giving it some consistency or homogeneity. Such a schematic version alone can accommodate a general intelligent principle as mahat. We have a feeling that this principle in order to participate with the totality at all must refer to an overall ground for both purusha and prakriti.
The Gita (II.28) refers to the avyakta as both the source and the end of the world. The Brahma Sutras, however, merely refute the pradhana. This however does not seriously injure Samkhya philosophy as a whole which has other basic concepts like mahat and avyakta. These two seem not to be repugnant to other Vedantins. The Brahma Sutras (I.4.28) also pointedly mention that the refutation already accomplished applies to all other doctrines which need not be demolished in detail after their protagonist the pradhana doctrine has been completely disposed of. They seem to gloat over such a triumph in too easy a manner. All we want to say here however is that the claims of the Samkhyas can never be overlooked by those interested in an integrated Science of the Absolute. Samkhya agrees more with science and philosophy than with mere theological dogma.
I. THE DYNAMISM OF THE THREE NATURE MODALITIES
The modes have a joyous, grievous, and stupefying nature. They serve for manifestation, activity and restraint; they mutually subdue and support each other, produce each other, consort together, and take each other's condition.
Goodness (sattva) is considered as light (or subtle) and enlightening (or manifesting); passion or foulness as exciting and mobile; darkness as heavy and enveloping (or obstructive, varanaka). Their action, for the gaining of an end, is like that of a lamp." (20)
II. KAPILA, THE FIRST KNOWN SAMKHYA PHILOSOPHER
We read the following:
In the Samkhya Karika (Verses 17 & 19) we read the following:
III. SCHEMATIC IMPLICATIONS
4. THE YOGA OF PATANJALI
Patanjali, the so-called "founder" of Yoga is the one name standing out prominently in India. Even the meagre outlines of his personality and life are not visible. No details are given about him and his date is not precisely known. He is sometimes even mistaken for a person of the same name who is the author of a grammatical commentary in Sanskrit. Images of Patanjali are seen in the Madurai temple in Tamil Nadu. We find his image standing side by side with an equally enigmatic figure called Vyagrapada, "tiger-footed one". Patanjali is even said to have lived on the island of Ceylon. We are hardly able to think of him except as the person who gave tangible literary form to the vague and ancient discipline of Yoga, which must have been little more than a word filled with various meanings until he put order into it. Whoever he might have been, he certainly deserves our gratitude because of his clear formulation of Yoga in a scientific form, without fear or favour of any particular religion be it orthodox or heterodox.
They, the siddhis (intense powers of the psyche in the progressive establishment of peace (samadhi) have a counter-effect."
or, (alternatively) by surrender to the Lord (Isvara)."
It is up to the religious believer to think of an Isvara or not. Patanjali remains above such religious needs and this impartial and fully scientific attitude is reflected in Chapter I, Verse 35, where he says that full and bipolar interest or attention applied to an object even of a sensuous character is capable by mutual cancellation of yielding a high state of spiritual experience:
Although attached to sense objects they steadily fix the mind, which has its basis in activity."
There is the choosing together of (the separate) willful ideation of word object and meaning, being put together while retaining the argumentation quality.
tapahsvadhyayesvarapranidhanani kriyayogah
Austerity, self-study, surrender to the Lord is Kriya-Yoga."
The word representing it is Aum (pranavah)
The tranquil mind results from the understanding of friendship, kindness and joyful equanimity in respect of the qualities of pleasure pain and virtue-vice."
Yoga is restraining (the outgoing) activities of the mind"
The mastery of this ranges from the atom to the great ultimate"
The ideas of nirodha (controlling afferent tendencies by efferent ones) and samyama (total control) are of special interest in revealing the techniques of Yoga. A law of opposites prevails here. It says in chapter 2.37 that by refusing to steal, one comes to possess, in principle at least, whatever is priceless and desirable. By practising samyama there is a certain psycho-physical functioning which gives intuitive understanding. These claims may appear strange, but they are fully rational and understandable when the structural mechanism of action and reaction are clearly imagined in its totality of subtle and possible implications. In the Yoga Sutras (III.26.31) we read:
"candre taravyuhajnanam
(By samyama) on the moon (results) the knowledge of the formation of the stars.
dhruve tadgatijnanam
nabhicakre kayavyuhainanam
kantakupe kshutpipasanivrittih
It should here be noted that although Yoga has incorporated within it certain psycho-physical practices it does not minimize the importance of reasoning and knowledge. The three pramanas of the Samkhyas are also used by Patanjali. We have pointed out the last of them, sabda or agama in this case, which is also recognized as aptavacanam (the authoritative word), in Vedanta.
These last are important only in the context of guesswork on which mimamsa, (exegetics) has largely to depend. Analogy (upamana) is covered here by agama, because the authoritative texts mostly speak in this figurative language. Thus there is no fundamental difference in the methodology of Yoga and Vedanta. Even so, the Brahma Sutras (II.1.3) seem to have a low regard of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras when it says "If it be said that these smritis (i.e. The Yoga Sutras) also assist, by argumentation and proof, the cognition of truth, we do not object to so much, but we maintain all the same that the truth can be known from Vedanta texts only." (23)
We read as follows:
Aloneness results from the equality of purity between the spirit and the pure principle of existence.
purusharthasunyanam guna nam pratiprasavah kaivalyam svarupapratishta va citisaktiriti
5 & 6. THE MIMAMSAS OF JAIMINI AND BADARAYANA
The term dharma is usually questionably translated "duty". We never know whether obligatory and social duties are meant, or duties of a different nature. The second sutra very correctly answers this question by defining dharma in the most precise manner. We read:
In the various translations in English, Indian or other languages, the enigma seems to deepen rather than get resolved. It is too easily stated by most translators that the book treats merely of Vedic ritualism and is directly concerned with brute action or karma. They describe this darsana as belonging to karma-kanda, the section treating of action in the context of Vedic ritualism. Jaimini in the next twenty-nine sutras, following his definition of dharma, does not treat of anything even remotely connected with the action, materials and their arrangement, as is proper to Vedic ritualism. Instead he is concerned with profound and subtle aspects of semiotic, semantic and syntactic processes intimately connected with linguistic theory. Why this is so has not been so far satisfactorily explained. To our knowledge it remains a mystery.
The tendency is to take for granted the prevailing popular fashion of all too easily dividing Vedic philosophy into two broad divisions of wisdom (jnana) and works (karma). It is just possible to justify such a standpoint by supposing the term dharma to mean action or works. Yet in the Purva Mimamsa Sutras such a simple interpretation is not suggested. Instead, Jaimini goes into difficult linguistic problems and by his own definition the term dharma refers to something having "the mark of inquiry" or codanalakshana. The term codana comes from the root cud, which, according to Monier-Williams, means, "to impel, incite, animate, to request, petition, ask, question, inquire after." (24)
I. SEMANTICS AND LOGICAL FORM IN THE MIMAMSA
The whole of the Purva Mimamsa Sutras is concerned with Vedic exegetics based on rhetoric, logic, dialectic, and semantics. These have also been subjects of interest to the ancient Greek philosophers. But in terms of pure cultural interest and value, decadent modernism has neglected such seemingly non-utilitarian branches of inquiry and reasoning. Aristotle knew about logical forms, but later logicians like Baine and J.S.Mill took little interest in this.
In respect of the appraisal of the Purva Mimamsa, the use of dialectics is one of its key features. The true character of the Purva Mimamsa would be evident if viewed from the point of view of logical or modern mathematical structuralism. In this way we shall see how even this Vedic discipline could belong to an integrated Science of the Absolute. The Indian mind has throughout history at least tacitly treated both Mimamsa philosophies as having a complementarity between them implying a doubled-sided structuralism in their approach to ultimate truth. This is true whether viewed under the perspective of sabda (sound-word), as the absolute implicit in the Vedas or more explicitly as more directly referring to the Absolute (brahman) found in the Upanishads. Whether considered as a word-sound or as the Absolute, the difference for the person interested in unitive and integrated thinking is negligible. In such a perspective we have to presuppose the subtle reciprocity persisting at the core of the two disciplines The fact that the Mimamsas are a "twin school," of philosophy is recognized by very few people. Max Muller seems to understand this when he says:
II. BRUTE VEDISM DIALECTICALLY REVALUED
Crude Vedism, in its beginnings, had sacrifices involving the killing of anima ls and other impure acts like Soma drinking bouts by the then bacchanalian Brahmins. This is easily verifiable from the ancient Vedic texts themselves. These well-fed and happy-go-lucky fellows of the age of "Aryan enlightenment" naturally, began to call themselves the chosen children of immortality. Discovering within themselves some vital human urge, they even figuratively imagined a great bull tied to a stick, fretting and fuming, with roaring sounds through which the brutish urges within its full-blooded and well-nourished body found outlet for absolute self-expression. The bull as a symbol has figured in many pre-historic representations of spirituality. It was definitely known to primitive man as evidenced by the pre-Vedic Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa excavations.
32. Also because the order of sentences (in the mantras) is irrevocably fixed.
33. Because there are directions addressed to one who already knows.
34. Because of the mention of such thing as do not exist.
35. Because of their being addressed to insensate things.
36. Because of contradictions in the signification.
37. Because there is no mention (of the meaning) as there is of the verbal text.
38. Because it is unintelligible.
39. Because of the mention of transient things, the mantras cannot be regarded as conveying any meaning".
41. The repetition is for purpose of qualification.
42. There is an exclusion.
43. Or it may be an arthavada." (29)
The next three sutras are answers to sutras 32 to 34:
"44. The assumption would not be incompatible
45. As regards the directions, no objection can be taken on the basis of reproach attaching to the signification; because it serves the purpose of adding to this qualification.
46. Being significant, the mantra is regarded as an arthavada." (30)
He writes:
Returning to the sutras once again, those numbered 47 to 50 by the translator are answers to Sutras 36 to 30. We read:
48. That the studying (of the mantras) is not mentioned (in the Vedic texts laying down Vedic study) is due to the fact that it (the knowledge of the meanings of mantras) has no connection (with the actual performance of sacrifices).
49. Moreover, there is ignorance (of the meaning) which is there all the same.
60. And the mention of transient things (in Vedic mantras) has already been explained." (32)
The phenotype called man when we speak of a brahmin or sudra is seen from their structurally conflicting positions to be quite another matter in a scientific sense from an actual member of a caste. Even Sankara disapproves of bahyabrahmanatva (objective brahminhood). There is a strange error here supporting caste in India because of the two-sided interference between inner and outer standards that the popular mind cannot keep from getting mixed up. Narayana Guru has clarified the way in which jati (kind, genus or caste) is to be understood in his composition called "Jati Mimamsa".
The structure and Vedic values have to be thought of together bilaterally if Jaimini is to be understood.
III. FROM THE ROARING BULL TO PURE SEMIOSIS
IV. THE STRUCTURE OF THE ETERNAL WORD-SOUND
The first question raises the objection that the utterance of words require physical effort and cannot be eternal. As we can see, Jaimini's answer is that when this is completely understood horizontally and vertically the same word-sound results. There is no need to think only of horizontal effort. The sceptic-questioner says:
Jaimini answers:
Here the objection raised is that the uttered sound does not make a lasting impression. Jaimini agrees that the horizontal sound does not exist but also says that semiotic processes extend vertically with reference to a time axis.
The next objection is:
The objection raised here is that the produced character of sound is a brute action and therefore not eternal. Jaimini's answer consists in pointing out how the actual sound produced is only the objective counterpart of a virtual and qualitative semiotic process taking place in consciousness.
The next objection is:
Jaimini answers:
The fourth objection says that with many people horizontally distributed and with the simultaneity of time quantitatively changed, the word-sound content by increase or decrease in volume proves its non-eternity. Jaimini answers that the simultaneous horizontal distribution is negligible when the vertical relation between the word-sound compared to the sun is taken into account. The sun schematically viewed as a universal concrete comprises all its plurality of images or reflections in water, etc. Here the structural implications are clearly evident.
The fifth objection is:
Jaimini's reply is:
The final objection raised by the sceptic-questioner is:
Jaimini replies:
This final objection that there is increase of word-sound when the number of persons utter it at the same time is answered by Jaimini by referring to the qualitative aspect of the word-sound and not the quantitative. Quality is vertical while quantity is horizontal.
After scrutinizing the above questions and answers it is not wrong to say that at least two structural correlates are implied in each of the question-answers treated together. Structuralism is recognized in both the counterparts at once as the physical and metaphysical. The methodology of Bergson will be helpful here and should be kept in mind.
We now pass on to Sutras 18 to 23. Here Jaimini goes into deeper and more general problems about the eternality of the word-sound. In this case no sceptical questioner is needed, because Jaimini relies on the a priori and axiomatic methods of reasoning. In other words, he uses sabda-pramana to prove his contentions.
Here Jaimini points out that the eternality of the word-sound is merely asserted, because the wordy purpose of it is different from its unwordy purpose.
"19. Because in the case of all (words) there is simultaneity or unanimity (Of recognition)."
What Jaimini means here is that all possible words can be merged differencelessly into the eternal context of the word-sound. The possibility of a full verticalization and normalization of the word-sound is implied.
"20. Also on account of the absence of number."
The non-discreteness of the word-sound is here brought out. Just as all seconds, minutes, etc. merge into pure time as a process of becoming, so the pure word-sound also has no divisions in its unbroken continuity.
"21. Because of the absence of cause."
Jaimini now refers to the absence of cause for the word-sound. This is like the eternal unmoved mover of Aristotle and the causeless cause in the Vivekachudamani of Sankara. Both presuppose an absolute reality, and likewise the uncaused word-sound is the absolute and eternal word-sound, or the Verb of verbs.
"22. Also because what is perceptible (by the ear) is not what is spoken of (in the Vedic declaration "the air becomes the word")"
Here a distinction is made between the spoken word in ordinary life and the word-sound in the context of the Vedas, which has a different intention and purpose. The former is the horizontal datum given to the senses, while the latter is vertical in character. Jaimini relies solely on the a priori method here,.
In the final Sutra, Jaimini refers to the authority of the Vedas for the eternality of the word-sound. The a priori method of reasoning here meets its limit, because Jaimini relies solely on the authority of the Vedas.
This scrutiny of Jaimini further reveals the fundamental structural features in his philosophy. It is a fact that the Vedas are seen to assert the eternality of the word-sound. As a fact is not questionable on final analysis, though the argument refers to the negative a priori of existential facts, still it could be axiomatically valid as when we say, "This is this". An existential self-evident truth or fact has its counterpart on the vertical plus side in the notion of apurva or unseen fruit of all actions resulting from all pure acts.
V. THE COMPLEMENTARITY OF THE MIMAMSAS
"It saw thirty-six thousand shining fire-altars, belonging to itself, made of mind, built of mind."
And further on the text makes similar statements about other fanciful fire-altars built of speech, built of breath, built of sight, built of hearing, built of work, built of fire. A doubt here arises whether these fire-altars built of mind and so on are connected with the act (i.e., the construction of the fire-altar made of bricks), and supplementary to it, or whether they are independent, constituting a mere vidya.
Against the prima facie view that those agnis (fire-altars) are connected with the sacrificial act under whose heading the text records them, the Sutra maintains their independence, 'on account of the majority of indicatory marks.' For we meet in that Brahmana with a number of indicatory marks confirming that those agnis constitute a mere vidya ; e.g. the following passages: 'What ever these beings conceive in their minds, that is a means for those fire-altars and 'All beings always pile up those fire-altars for him who thus knows, even when he sleeps,' and so on. And that indicatory marks (linga) are of greater force than the leading subject-matter (prakarana) has been explained in the Purva Mimamsa (III,3,14)" (36)
Sutra 44 establishes horizontal schematic equality of fire-altars. A vertico-horizontal correlation is accomplished in Sutra 43:
But while in the case of the three purodasas the difference of material and divinity involves a difference on the part of the oblations, we have in the case under discussion to do with one vidya only; for that the text enjoins one vidya only we conclude from the introductory and concluding statements. There is contained, however, in this one vidya a double meditative activity with regard to the bodily organs and the divinities, just as the agnihotra which is offered in the morning as well as in the evening requires a double activity. In this sense the Sutra says, 'as in the case of the offerings." (37)
VI. THE VEDANTA OF BADARAYANA
What is strange is how the position has become reversed. In the prevailing popular opinion and even in that of almost every scholar, Jaimini has become the symbol of Vedic orthodoxy.
VII. VEDANTA CONFINED TO THE BRAHMA SUTRAS
It is almost impossible to treat the Mimamsas separately as two completely independent schools of thought. The Purva Mimamsa relies on the Vedas while the mahavakyas of the Upanishads give Vedanta its inspiration. Vedanta also completely relies on sabda-pramana (the validity of the word) disregarding other norms of thought such as mana and meya, found in the Purva Mimamsa. Both schools claim to arrive at the truth which saves man from suffering and makes him free. This is the aim of all six darsanas as we have already pointed out.
Instead of trying to destroy other philosophies out of orthodox concern for self-preservation, it would have been better if the Brahma Sutras had followed the true spirit of Vedanta, welcoming all into its scope as is done in the Bhagavad Gita (XV-15):
The weakest point of the Brahma Sutras is its ontology. In striking contrast to this is the Bhagavad Gita (XVII-26) where sat-bhava is given a basic position in a scheme of absolute Reality.
We read:
As we have seen the Brahma Sutras depend more on a descending dialectical method, having no other cause then the "highest Lord" identified with the lower Absolute (apara-brahman) of the Upanishads. The highest Lord is adored by Sankara in his commentary under the name of Vasudeva, and more frequently referred to as paramatma (highest Self).
The second Sutra of the Brahma Sutras refers to the beginning of the world and brings in the highest Lord. This presents a difficulty. Both the Brahma Sutras and Sankara, by adopting this methodology, are hard put to derive from it the reality of the manifest world with all its actualities. Somehow Sankara manages to resolve this by appealing to the Taittiriya Upanishad (III-1) where reference is made to the Absolute as being the source of the creation, preservation and dissolution of the world. Strictly speaking there are no such halting places in the eternal process of phenomenal becoming. They are rather images extracted from the context of mobile eternity, or as Plato referred to it in the Timaeus, "a moving image of eternity".
VIII. A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE BRAHMA SUTRAS AND VEDANTA IN GENERAL
2. Postulation or arthapatti. A great amount of guessing and hypothetical construction is allowed when using this method of arguing. This means the philosopher is not on firm ground. When a priori and a posteriori methods meet here only a questionable certitude results, lacking in any apodictic finality.
4. What is not seen, or na drishta. This is an appeal to common experience and has the same value as experiments in science. But on close scrutiny many of Sankara's examples are untenable from a strictly experimental point of view. In the Brahma Sutras, (II-1-26) Sankara says:
He also remarks:
and
In another section (II-2-24) he refutes the Buddhists, by claiming:
"the real existence of space is to be inferred from the quality of sound, since we observe that earth and other real things are the abodes of smell and the other qualities".
Finally, using the female crane as an example he says it "conceives without a male". (III-1-19)
In another section (11-1-29) Sankara says:
5. Perception or pratyaksha. This method, most important for an ontological philosophy, is only treated with lukewarm interest. It can be included, but the actual sensum as a datum given directly to the senses is treated not as an individual actuality of time and space, but rather as an epiphenomenal factor having its source in consciousness. In the Brahma Sutra (I-1-2) Sankara relies on perception for clinching an argument when he says:
6. Analogy or upamana. We find in the Brahma Sutras many of the analogies far-fetched and capable of being called superstitious.
There is also reference I-2-7 and 14 to the salagram or holy ammonite found in the Himalayan riverbeds and resembling the discus or cakra of Vishnu. This salagram is regarded as holy and if one worships it one is supposed to enter into the heavenly world of Vishnu.
7. The sceptical questioner or purvapakshin. This is a device used by Sankara throughout his commentary on the Brahma Sutras. These imaginary sceptical questioners are sometimes multiplied one on top of another, and it is almost impossible in many cases to match the answers to the corresponding questions or to the philosophical school represented. At other times the question of a sceptic (purvapakshin) found in one chapter is again referred to and answered in a somewhat offhanded manner in a much later chapter. One hardly knows where one stands after all this. Some of the sceptical questioners even speak with the same voice as Sankara, suggesting leading lines of hair-splitting argumentation. This complicated type of method and argumentation are found all over the Brahma Sutras and no specific references are needed to point them out.
8. "If so, no" or "iti-cet-na". This device is often used to summarily dismiss a purvapakshin. Sometimes the argument of the questioner is sound and Sankara still resorts to this device merely to defeat his own postulated opponent. Perhaps in the domain of general ideas some of these defects are inevitable and one should not condemn them outright. After all, the same quality or degree of certitude expected from experimental science cannot be expected when a philosopher is obliged to be on fully speculative ground.
Here in the Gita the experimental approach based on perception (pratyaksha) and right living (dharmyam) are together underlined as being the qualification of easy applicability in life. These are exactly the qualifications lacking in the Brahma Sutras, which, as a text claiming to represent the wisdom of the Upanishads, often leaves the reader in the dark because of its vague and hair-splitting way of reasoning.
IX. GENERAL OR GREATER VEDANTA
As one of the six Vedic darsanas, the Uttara Mimamsa (Vedanta) has only a limited scope within a complete integrated Science of the Absolute. Badarayana compensates for the apparent "godlessness" of the Purva Mimamsa and this is why many theological references to Isvara (Lord) and the devas (gods) whether as godheads, deities, or demiurges are found in his work.
Metaphysical and theological spirituality with a weak and passive ontology characterizes the Uttara Mimamsa, making it lopsided when compared to the totality and scope of the two Mimamsas treated in such a way that a normalized Vedanta results. Such is the position and role fulfilled by the eighteen chapters of the Bhagavad Gita. Each chapter is a revision of the Absolute having its own self-consistent methodology, epistemology and scale of absolutist values. This generous and sweeping study of the Absolute in all its aspects (intellectual, spiritual and mystical) boldly welcomes all creeds and religions anywhere in the world. Even the natural errors of popular religion are excused in the Gita (IX-23):
The open character of the Gita is thus unquestionable. It is therefore not a darsana among darsanas but rather represents a point of view unitively including them all. The Gita, like the Darsana Mala, is a string of visions of the Absolute. There exist other works such as the Sarva Darsana Samgraha of Madhavacarya and the Sarva Darsana Siddhanta Sara Samgraha, questionably attributed to Sankara. In their own way these two works also undertake to present and integrate all possible darsanas and eliminate all elements of contradiction and conflict between them. In the light of a crowning Vedantic outlook both Sankara and Madhavacarya hope to accomplish this.
That status attained by men of Samkhya (rationalist persuasion) is reached also by those of the Yoga (unitive-discipline-persuasion); Samkhya and Yoga as one, he who thus sees, he (alone) sees." (49)
We have noticed how the Brahma Sutras are not very enthusiastic about Yoga, nor about Samkhya. On the other hand the Gita respects both Kapila and Patanjali (This further distinguishes the open and dynamic Greater Vedanta, which is also Brahma Vidya or the Science of the Absolute, from its closed counterpart. The difference in attitude to caste is clearly shown between these two works. As we have shown Badarayana is closed on this subject whereas the Gita treated of it in an open and universal manner. We read in IX:
The nasty marks of cruelty, racism and caste exclusiveness are all proper to a closed and static attitude and way of life. This does not in any way apply to the Vedanta of the Gita. The open and generous attitude of the Gita is the same as the one Narayana Guru wishes to continue with a properly re-ordered methodology, epistemology and a scale of values.
17. BRAHMA VIDYA PANCAKAM
FIVE VERSES ON THE SCIENCE OF THE ABSOLUTE
Even through the discrimination of the lasting from the transient
Attaining well unto detachment, the well-instructed one,
Duly adorned with the six initial conditions known,
Such as calmness, control and so on,
And keenly desirous of liberation here on earth;
He then greets with prostrations,
A knower of the Absolute superior,
Pleased and favourable by anterior attentions and service;
Thereafter should he ask of such a Guru:
"O Master, this 'I' here, what is it?
"Whence this world phenomenal?
"O teach me this, great one."
Thou art the Absolute, not senses, not mind
Neither intellect, consciousness, nor body;
Even life and ego have no reality, being but conditioned
By nescience, superimposed on the prime Self.
Everything phenomenal here, as object of perception, is gross
Outside of thine own Self, this manifested world is nought,
And Self-hood alone does shine thus
Mirage-like in variegated display.
What all things here, both moveable and immovable pervade
As the clay substance does the pot and jug,
Whose inward awareness even Self-hood here constitutes,
And whereunto resolved what still remains, instill with existence unborn,
And that which all else do follow
Know that to be the Real, through clear insight,
As that same which one adores for immortal bliss!
Nature having emanated, what thereafter, therein entry makes,
What sustains and gives life, both as the enjoyer
Of the divided objectivity outside,
As the "I'' of the deep subconsciousness of dreamless sleep,
Whose Self-hood even shines as the "I"
Within the consciousness each of the peoples too -
That same in which well-being stands founded firm at every step;
Such a plenitude of perfection; hear! "That thou art."'
Intelligence supreme, even That I am ! That thou art!
"That Brahman is the Self here!" singing thus full well,
And so established in peace of mind;
And reborn to pure ways of life by the dawn of the wisdom of the Absolute,
Where could there be for thee the bondage of action
Whether of the past, present or future?
For everything is but superimposed conditioning on thy prime Self
Thou art that existing, subsisting One of Pure Intelligence, the Lord.
18. MUNICARYA PANCAKAM
FIVE VERSES ON THE WAY OF THE RECLUSE
Will not his arm for him a pillow make
And the ground whereon his feet may fall,
Gaining sin-absorbing power, will it not
A veritable couch provide,
For that hermit free from all desires?
What other wealth for such is here?
Knower as he is of the import of "Thou art that!"
And other dicta, transcending all pleasures,
He enjoys supreme felicity!
Asking for nothing, being himself desireless,
Eating what providence might provide
Just for keeping the body, sleeping on the wayside,
Sorrowless, ever conscious of the self
Because of the unity of his own and other selves,
That everlasting and peerless state that shines
As his own, he attains, of existent, subsistent bliss!
The hermit may sometimes in eloquence excel,
While elsewhere be of sparing speech;
He may appear sometimes learned or be like
One ignorant, wandering, or seated or standing;
Having once obtained a body which is changeful
Still devoted to the total wisdom-state,
Untruncated by Time, he ever remains in the Ultimate.
Beyond the disputation of existent and non-existent, Unthinkable, ungraspable, atomic, unmutilated, whole and pure, Ultimate, steadily-established, erect and most high.
From here and there retracting interest,
The hermit attains the fourth state
In his aim to go beyond both the real and the unreal.
Whether living in his home or in the forest,
No matter, the yogis ever live with their minds
In the Absolute alone.
Treating everything here like a mirage on desert land,
The hermit ever enjoys bliss in the peerless Absolute Supreme:
19. HIGHER CRITICISM AND MYSTICISM
James also describes the essential features of the mystic under the term "Saintliness". They are:
3. An immense elation. and freedom, as the outlines of the confining self-hood melt down.
4. A shifting of the emotional centre towards loving and harmonious affections, towards "yes, yes", and away from "no", where the claims of the non-ego are concerned." (54)
Further on in his work he outlines the four marks of mysticism which he terms, "ineffability, noetic quality, transience, and passivity". (55)
While accepting Bergson´s active mysticism and James' healthy- mindedness, it must be remembered that these are only grades of mysticism. It is possible to think of a graded series of types to be placed in an ascending scale where the essential mystical quality has an endless series of positions on a vertical axis. Like the iron ball, the red-heat is the lower limit and the white-heat the higher level. On the lower immanent level of red-heat, mysticism concerns itself with matter-of-fact aspects of "glowing" activity, while at the higher transcendental level of white-heat, mysticism produces various forms of emotional outpourings. Ultimately transcendence becomes absolute by a kind of double assertion, as it rises by a process of double negation
20. THE DEFINITION OF MYSTICISM
Further on James advocates a critical Science of Religions:
We agree here completely with James as far as he goes, although we have our own reservations in respect of his pluralism and pragmatic approach. Instead of a too simple and common-sense definition of mysticism such as "cultivating the presence of God", we prefer to have side by side with this a more comprehensively scientific definition. Mysticism can only thrive in a non-rigid, thin and fluid world where processes of being and becoming could exchange places.
If the same teacher should bring a globe into the classroom to show the position of the poles, equator, etc. and another equally clever student stands up and says he would never live in the North Pole, the teacher could only tell him that his personal preference has nothing whatever to do with the lesson.
And one is unmindful of the ultimate verity of what is said
Yet as with the truth, however ultimate, such knowledge
Can never fall outside the scope of the knowing self."
Judged in the light of this compensatory law or principle holding good in contemplative mysticism, it is possible to number and grade all mysticism, giving to each its position on a vertical scale. After examining the grades of reciprocity found in Bhakti (contemplation) and Yoga (mystical union), Narayana Guru, in the final chapter on Nirvana (emancipation) accomplishes the more difficult job of classification. To our knowledge, such a classification has never been attempted with scientific precision together with clear definitions of each, except perhaps in the anonymous Yoga Vasishta. We shall also refer to this interesting Vedantic work in later chapters. We now close this section and proceed with the prologue to the sixth chapter of the Darsana Mala.
FOOTNOTES
Science of the Absolute Chapter 6 - Prologue
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AN INTEGRATED SCIENCE OF THE ABSOLUTE
6. COSMOLOGY
PROLOGUE
We have chosen the word "instrumentalism" for the title of this chapter. This is because it comes as near as possible to the purpose and content intended by Narayana Guru. Pure instruments refer to a verticalized version of action and interaction between the Self and the non-Self. No crude mechanistic action is to be imagined here. Instead, something akin to the action of a man in meditation or even dream is what is meant. The first verse of the karma-darsana refers directly to this dream activity, suggesting a subtle kind of psycho-physical interaction rather than an overtly mechanistic and unilateral form of activity.
Note: The verses of Narayana Guru to which reference is made may be found on pp.912-920.
885
Philosophy and science can only merge into each other when this method is further perfected and prolonged into more truly contemplative and philosophical domains. It was because of the rare philosophical intuition of Bergson, who took up a more scientific line of thought, that a kind of counterattack was begun against the more classical ways of thinking. The implications of instrumentalism were worked out by Bergson so as to push it to the farthest limits of metaphysical speculation.
Bergson's own original impetus came from his revision and restatement of biological evolution, one of the all-absorbing subjects of his time. Darwin attempted to explain the origin of the species in terms of a mechanistic action and interaction between rival competitive forces. Bergson, on the other hand, thought in terms of "creative evolution", giving to the general theory a new and verticalized orientation. Evolution to Bergson meant a creative process taking place between forces inside living beings meeting their own counterparts from the outside world. According to him, the evolution of the eye in fish or animals results from the vital urges within interacting with the light coming from without. There is a subtle dialectical interaction between counterparts taking place, not in the field of visible movements but in a movement imaginable from inside in terms of a "schéma moteur". This is a verticalized version of actual movement without the contradiction of successive steps needed to accomplish movement from point to point. Paradox is here transcended by Bergson's process of creative evolution. Such a process is intuitively felt rather than discursively analyzed. Furthermore in creative evolution the interaction between the inside and the outside of a thing takes place on the levels of instinct and intelligence. Both these factors participate intimately in the process of evolution.
886
We read:
"Shaken to its depths by the current which is about to sweep it forward, the soul ceases to revolve round itself and escapes for a moment from the law which demands that the species and the individual should condition one another. It stops as though to listen to a voice calling. Then it lets itself go, straight onward ... Then comes a boundless joy, an all-absorbing ecstasy or an enthralling rapture; God is there, and the soul is in God.... The ecstasy is indeed rest, if you like, but as though at a station, where the engine is still under steam, the onward movement, becoming a vibration on one spot, until it is time to move forward again ... But though the soul becomes, in thought and feeling, absorbed in God, something of it remains outside; that something is the will, whence the soul's action, if it acted, would quite naturally proceed. Its life then is not yet divine. The soul is aware of this, hence its vague disquietude, hence the agitation in repose which is the striking feature of what we call complete mysticism: it means that the impetus has acquired the momentum to go further, that ecstasy affects the ability to see and, to feel, but that there is, besides, the will, which itself has to find its way back to God." (1)
According to biology, man is a highly evolved animal. He is distinguished from the lesser animals by an intelligence meeting his individual urges in the form of consciousness coming from the species as a whole. The interests of the individual and the species form dialectical counterparts, as suggested by Bergson in the above quotation. A conception of God belongs to the context of the highest happiness or joy experienced in the form of "complete mysticism". Man is always striving along a vertical axis of spiritual progress to preserve his race and fulfill its purpose in life. From the side of God there is the opposite tendency where the love of man for God and the love of God for man are interchangeable terms.
Man's body is a kind of instrument of which actual machines are continuations. His hands and feet are meant for work and machines are supposed to aid in this same purpose. When the energy available from such natural products as coal and oil was finally utilized by humanity, a new horizontal expansion of opportunities for work began. This was due to humanity´s innovative and natural genius existing as an innate disposition from prehistoric times.
Bergson further says:
1. THE WORKINGS OF INSTRUMENTAL MYSTICISM
It is the last clause here that is most intriguing for us. The horse is meant to draw or carry something forward. It could be a plough or a chariot. However, a plough is generally drawn by oxen and a horse is more suitable or compatible to a chariot. There must be some compatibility between ends and means. It is a delicate reciprocity, a complementarity, suitability or correspondence of a one-one order and not any duality or difference that Sankara approves when he explains the reference to the horse in the Sutra in question.
Referring to his law of dichotomy and more particularly to his "law of twofold frenzy", at two levels of this particular evolutionary process of the life-impetus, evolving from the quantitative to the qualitative, Bergson says:
Before leaving the subject of instrumental mysticism there are one or two more features of Bergson's philosophy that we wish to mention. The two limiting points of the vertical axis where mystical contemplation lives, moves and has its being have already been referred to. Bergson uses both Aristotle and Plato as clearly marking out these limiting points in the following manner:
- Why did Aristotle posit as first principle a motionless mover, "a Thought thinking itself", self-enclosed, operative only by the appeal of its perfection?
- Why, having posited this principle, did he call it God? But in the one case as in the other the answer is easy: the Platonic theory of ideas ruled over the thought of Greece and Rome ere ever it penetrated into modern philosophy." (5)
2. INTEGRATION OF MYSTICAL EXPRESSIONS
Having reached the point in Bergson's instrumentalism where he speaks of Aristotle and Plato as representing two polarities between the philosophical values where the twofold mystical frenzy is explained, we are now obliged to leave behind Bergson's own realistic and vitalistic picture of mysticism where he says, "complete mysticism is action". It is true that a philosopher has to deal with real things and not always with axiomatic abstractions.
3. PARITY BETWEEN INSTRUMENT AND ACTION
The cause of action and its effects are to be thought of as dialectically belonging together, in terms of absolute self-consciousness. It is in such a light that; the series of verses will become fully intelligible.
As mysticism expresses different kinds of frenzy, agony or ecstasy between the limits of eroticism and saintliness, this emotional colouration of activity is true only at a certain level. Mysticism, as expressed by prayer and fasting as well as a plenitude of pious works is best expressed by St. Catherine of Siena. Bergson strongly approves of her and includes her in his list of "incomplete mystics". One can think of this kind of mysticism as one glowing with life and a warm eagerness to serve humanity piously. This service of humanity unfortunately has necessarily a local-fixed or closed character and in the present case is hemmed in by Christian patterns of behaviour not altogether favourable to persons with an open outlook. Anyhow, to the extent that this type of mysticism can be characterized as open and dynamic, the red glow of vitality that is eager to zealously affiliate itself to the requirements of a world of horizontally expanding values gives to such an expression the full character of being practical and realistic.
Psychological types such as extroverts and introverts also offer many varieties. General psychological types constitute a study which is vast in itself, as shown by C. G. Jung´s work on the subject. Yogis can be referred to as aspiring to eight different levels of attainment as found in Patanjali, and so can be fairly easily subjected to classification on such a basis in the present work. It is the manifestation of absolutism in the human personality that is the determining factor for any classification under each of the chapters: therefore we shall content ourselves with making passing references to a few selected instances of absolutist mysticism. We shall not attempt to be exhaustive nor adhere to any strict order in the treatment of each case referred to.
The same structuralism should be considered as relating and integrating all the individual chapters. In the present chapter we have to note that although the parity of instrument and action is in principle accepted, it is the instrument as an existent reality which is given priority over the ultimate principle of Good or God to whose love or understanding it is applied.
4. NORMAL AND ABNORMAL MYSTICISM
As one's own a doctrine belonging to the other side
How can it true knowledge bring? Lip service will not do;
One has earnestly to contemplate the supreme state.
That which is non-distinct from knowledge than knowing which knowledge
Straight away; here there is none other to know
As any ultimate knowing beyond, such the supreme secret
Of the most informed of men., who is there to know?"
Freak and abnormal expressions have a nuisance value in human life and cannot strictly be included under any type of scientific mysticism, although they could belong to the overall context of mysticism. Fanatics and certain martyrs also have disturbing effects on human affairs, though perhaps inevitably. The aesthetic instinct in man is also a form of mysticism. Oscar Wilde is perhaps a good example of this.
Patriotic and fanatical expressions also come under mysticism because of their bipolar affiliation of the inner man with outer values in group life. When a man thinks that a piece of art belongs to him he established a link, however feeble, between his Self and non-Self. This possibility belongs to the context of more specialized cases of mysticism. Narayana Guru points this out in Verse 48 of the Atmopadesa Satakam:
In respect of each possible thing, treats all as "That is mine",
Or "This is mine", transcending bodily sense;
Any one becomes a realized man when we come to think in this way."
NATURE MYSTICISM
"I was utterly alone with the sun and the earth. Lying down on the grass, I spoke with my soul to the earth, the sun, the air, and the distant sea far beyond sight. I thought of the earth's firmness - I felt it bear me up; through the grassy couch there came an influence as if I could feel the great earth speaking to me. I thought of the wandering air - its pureness, which is its beauty; the air touched me and gave me something of itself. I spoke to the sea: though so far, in my mind I saw it, green at the rim of the earth and blue in deeper ocean; I desired to have its strength - its mystery and glory. Then I addressed the sun, desiring the soul equivalent of his light and brilliance, his endurance and unwearied race. I returned to the blue heaven over, gazing into its depth, inhaling its exquisite colour and sweetness.
The rich blue of the unattainable flower of the sky drew my soul towards it, and there it rested, for pure colour is rest of heart." (11)
THE MYSTICISM OF ACTION
Joan: Do you think that, God has nothing to clothe him in?
Quest: Did he have any hair?
Joan.: Why would it have been cut off?
Quest: Does God hate the English?
Joan.: About the love or hate God may have for the English, I know nothing, but I do know that they will be driven out of France.
Quest: Did your hope of winning a victory rest upon your sword?
Joan: It lay in my Lord and nowhere else.
Quest: Is that all you wish to answer now?
Joan: I look to my judge - he is King of Heaven and Earth.
Quest: Do you mean to say you have no judge on this earth? Is not our Holy father the Pope your judge?
Joan; I will not answer further to that, I have A good Master - that is my Lord - to him only I look and to none other." (12)
2. THE MYSTICISM OF AGONY
4. PHILOSOPHIC MYSTICISM
Jacob Boehme, (1575-1624) considered by many to be the greatest mystic-philosopher of the Protestant tradition, was a shoemaker by profession and a mystic by temperament. His writings, though in many places difficult to comprehend, had a great influence on the German philosophy of later years. Boehme knew none of the great mystical writings of his time. He derived much of his inspiration from Nature, the Bible and the alchemist philosopher, Paracelsus.
"Nor have I ascended into heaven, nor have I seen all the works and creations of God, but heaven has revealed itself within my spirit in such a way that I therefore recognize the divine works and creation. By my own powers I am as blind as the next man, but through the spirit pierce all things". (14)
5. THE MYSTICISM OF THE SUFIS
0 Thou, Who art the essence of the spirit in men and women,
When men and women become one, Thou art that One,
When the units are wiped out, lo, Thou art That Unity.
Thou didst contrive this "I" and "We" in order to play the game of worship with Thyself
That all "I" ´s and "Thou´s" might become one soul and at last be submerged in the Beloved" (19)
And all the Universe still dormant lay
Concealed in selflessness, One Being was
Exempt from "I" or "Thou" – ness and apart
From all duality; Beauty Supreme,
Unmanifest, except unto Itself.
By Its own light, yet fraught with power to charm
The souls of all; concealed in the Unseen,
An Essence pure, unstained by aught of ill.
No mirror to reflect its loveliness,
Nor comb to touch Its looks; the morning breeze
Ne´er stirred Its stresses; no collieries,
Lent lustre to Its eyes nor rosy cheeks,
O'er shadowed by dark curls like hyacinth,,
Nor peach-like down were there; no dusky mole
Adorned Its face; no eye had yet beheld
Its image. To Itself it sang of love
In wordless measures,. By itself it cast
The die of love.
Beware! Say not, "He is All-Beautiful,
And we His Lovers" Thou art but the glass,
And He the Face confronting it, which casts, its image on the mirror.
He, alone is manifest, and thou in truth art hid."
"Pure Love, like Beauty, coming but from Him,
Reveals itself in thee. If steadfastly
Thou canst regard, thou wilt at length perceive He is the mirror also –
He alike The Treasure and the Casket.
"I" and "Thou" Have here no place, and are but fantasies
Vain and unreal. Silence! for this tale
Is endless, and no eloquence hath power
To speak of Him. This best for us to love,
And suffer silently, being as naught." (20)
We hope to include in the last three chapters some more Western mystics and this is one of the reasons why such people as St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa and others have not been included in this chapter.
FOOTNOTES
Science of the Absolute Chapter 6 - Verses
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DARSANA-MALA
A GARLAND OF VISIONS OF THE ABSOLUTE
VI. KARMA-DARSANAM (VISION OF ACTION)
And detached, that through negativity
Does action bearing many forms,
Like the dream-agent in sleep.
NIDRAYAM TAIJASAH IVA, like the dream-agent in sleep,
ATMA-EVA BAHURUPADHRIK, the Self itself, bearing many forms,
MAYAYA KARMA KAROTI, by means of its negative principle does action
2. manye vadami grhnami srnomitiyadirupatah kriyate karma paramatmana cittendriyatmana
In forms such as these are actions accomplished
By the supreme Self, (which is also)
The Self of pure reason and the senses.
SRINOMI-ITYADI RUPATAH," I hear", in such forms,
KARMA KRIYATE, actions are accomplished,
CITENDRIYATMANA, by the Self of pure reason and the senses (having the form of ego-sense with motor senses)
There is nothing else at all.
Through the Self, by its own negative principle,.
By itself are accomplished all actions.
ATMA-EVA VIDYATE, it is the Self that exists,
ANYAT KINCIT NA, there is nothing else at all,
TATAH, through it,
SVENA-EVA, by the Self itself,
NIJAMAYAYA, by its own negative principle,
KARMANI KRIYANTE, (all) action is accomplished
There exists a certain undefinable specificatory power
By that (power), all actions
Are falsely attributed to the actionless Self.
SVATAH NA PRTHAK, not different from itself,
DURGATAH, an undefinable,
KACID SAKTIH ASTI, there exists a certain (specificatory) power,
TAYA-EVA, by that (power),
AROPYATE, is falsely attributed,
NIKHILAM KARMA, all action,
NISHKRIYATMANI, in the actionless Self
One performs action as if attached due to ignorance.
The wise man, saying "I do nothing,"
Is not interested in action.
SARVADA, always,
ASANGA EVA, is detached indeed,
AJNATAYA, due to ignorance,
SANGIVAT, as if attached,
KARMA KAROTI, does the action,
JNAH, the wise man,
NA KAROM-ITI, saying "I do nothing",
NA KARMASU SAJJATE, is not interested in action
As wind (it) blows,
As water (it) rains,
As earth (it) supports (and) as a river (it) flows.
JVALANAH SAN JVALATI, as fire it
burns,VAYUH SAN VATI, as wind (it) blows,
VARIDAH SAN VARSHATI, as water it rains,
DHARATMA SAN DHARATI, as earth it supports,
VAHINI SAN VAHATI, as a river it flows
Moves (as) upward and downward vital tendencies
Within the nervous centres, indeed,
It beats, murmurs and pulsates.
NISHKRIYAH STHITAH, remaining actionless,
PRANAH (SAN) URDHVAN, as upwards vital tendency,
APANAH (SAN) ADAH, as downward vital tendency,
YATI, moves,
NADYANTARALE, within the nervous centres,
DHAMATI KRANDATI SPHANDATI HI, indeed beats, murmurs and pulsates
Grows, transforms, decreases and attains its end-
As subject to six forms of becoming-
YAH, what,
ASTI JANMAR ADHI PARINATYA PAKSHAYA VINASANAM, as what exists, is born, grows, is transformed, decreases, attains its end,
SHADBHAVAM, six forms,
YATI, what is subject to,
SAH, that,
AVIKRIYATMANAH, from the actionless Self,
ANYAH NA, is no other
Actions become Self-accomplished.
However, the wise man knows,
"I am the unattached, inner well-founded one"
KARMANI SVAYAM KRIYANTE, actions become Self-accomplished,
AHAM ASANGAH KUTASTHA ITI JANATI, knows "I am the unattached inner well-founded one"
Even the "I" is a conditioning factor,
Superimposed like the mother-of-pearl gleam.
Above everything else, today and tomorrow one alone is.
DRISYATVAT, because of being the object of experience,
BHASYAM, is a conditioning factor,
ATAH, because of this,
AHAM, I,
SUKTI-RANGAVAT, like the silver gleam in the mother-of-pearl,
ADHYASTAM, is superimposed,
ADYA SVOPI, today and tomorrow (i.e. always),
SARVOPARI-STHITAH, fixed above all things,
EKAH EVA, even one (is)
Science of the Absolute Chapter 6 - Epilogue
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AN INTEGRATED SCIENCE OF THE ABSOLUTE
6. ACTION
EPILOGUE
There is a paradox to be transcended here with the help of maya (the principle of error). All negative and positive factors hiding the pure unity, simplicity and reality of the Absolute are attributed to this principle meant to cover all philosophical error. It was clearly recognized as a negative principle in the fourth chapter. Now some of its necessary, though relativistic, positive aspects have to be thought of in connection with this mysterious factor of indeterminism or unpredicability. Paradox cannot be transcended by philosophy without the help of some such notion and the use of the term "Maya" is only meant to effect without absurdity the transition through the a posteriori and a priori methods of reasoning.
"One who is able to see action in inaction
and inaction in action, he among men is intelligent;
he is one of unitive attitude (yogi)
while still engaged in every possible kind of work." (1)
by whom even the Self by the Self has been won;
for one not (possessed) of Self,
the Self would be in conflict with the very Self,
as it were an enemy" (2)
Further we have to notice that actions are meant to resemble dream activity, belonging to the same subtle order. The monstrous actual world of machines cannot easily be accommodated into a world of dreams. Those dreams with more subjective yet horizontalized values involved, might be pleasant; but those with vertical yet objective values might be disturbing nightmares.
Mechanics normally refers to a horizontalized version of reality or value. In contemplation it is a verticalized world that gains primacy. A fanwise expansion in a world of ever-increasing opportunities is not to be kept in mind here. That would belong to a world of contemplative horizontal values. All actions are meant finally to narrow down into purer contemplative wisdom values, so as to take us to the subject-matter of the next chapter. The three dimensions of the structuralism referring to the laws of physics or logical thought tend to get absorbed thus into the pure vertical fourth dimension. This process has been described by Bergson as comparable to the river Rhone flowing into the Lake of Geneva at one end and emerging from it at the other. Bergson's lake analogy is broader or more pragmatic than what is kept in mind by Narayana Guru in this chapter. If we draw an imaginary line across the broadest part of the lake we could get two counterparts between which action and retroaction are constantly establishing homeostatic equilibrium. It is this equilibrium in the domain of rival activities that constitutes the central theme of this chapter.
The Vedantin wishes to verticalize and reverse this position, and to see the Self neither as a cause nor an effect, but rather as a central Absolute, combining existence, subsistence, and value without contradiction.
In the concluding words of his commentary on the first four sutras (called the catussutri) of the Brahma Sutras, we find Sankara masterly summing up the position of Vedantic methodology. We read in I.1.4:
"As (values such as) son and body, etc, are nullified, as being relative or non-valid, how can the knowledge result of such order as "I am the existent Absolute" ?
Before what is to be inquired into as Self- knowledge, there is inquirerhood for the Self; even when inquired into, this inquiring agent itself is free from all sin or fault.
Just as in worldly matters the terms "body", "soul" etc. are used for purposes of certitude, so too is this a valid instrument of reasoning for certitude regarding the self." (3)
1. THE CERTITUDE OF THIS CHAPTER
There the ontological Self was purified of all unreality, but the existent character was still retained. In passing over from the ontological side to the domain of metaphysics a paradox has to be transcended. This paradoxical element is Maya hiding truth and is not only capable of producing errors horizontally, which can be finally negated by a negation of all negations, but also has a positive counterpart referring to knowledge (vidya), to be confirmed by double assertion.
We have already referred to the important verse in the Bhagavad Gita (IV.18) showing the method used by Vedanta in transcending paradox. It is Maya that presents the paradox with all its complications and dual implications. It has been therefore called the principle of unpredicability or incertitude.
This Maya principle is treated here as a rival specificatory power or factor, capable of attributing all actions to the actionless Self. It must refer to an abstract conceptual principle of error at the extreme limits of the non-Self. This non-Self and the real Self have a reciprocal interaction, resulting in a fan-like expansion of tendencies in the pure Self which is its own vertical counterpart. Thus, the four-fold limbs of the quaternion enter into interplay, producing desires, knowledge and action, resulting in apparent nominal manifestation by the meeting of counterparts. The fourfold structure of the Self and the non-Self of the previous chapter was equated upwards and ontologically absorbed at the end. Here the superimposed Self is to be equated down, though retaining its status as a positive reference.
2. THE TYPES OF ACTION IN THIS CHAPTER
We read:
Narayana Guru says the three functions of the Self as an instrument are: desire, knowledge and activity, having a gradation occupying successively three points within the instrument in a positive series in the vertical axis.
As for other examples of generalized activity in the context of the Self and non-Self treated together we refer to the five items in Narayana Guru's comment to Verse 2. They are rising, falling, contracting, expanding and moving. The structural implications of these five movements are easy enough to understand. The last item refers to this horizontal motion. All these activities have to be inside a circle and equated with the instrument also treated as a unit counterpart. The resultant is absolute action as a mystical value. The pure mystical content of the heart of a Joan of Arc, when thought of unmixed with any exaggerated religious or political implications, need not be considered as falling outside the scope of absolute activity as it is to be understood in this chapter.
3. FUNCTIONAL UNITS OF ACTIVITY
The five functions seem to suggest a five-fold structure belonging also to the five elementals. The five functional units called pranas (vital tendencies) also conform to this fivefold structural pattern. Besides the overt phenomenal aspects of Verse 6, there is a similar reference to functions within the body which raise or lower and contract or expand horizontally.
From elementals to the highest of intelligible Platonic entities of the universe there are a number of possible functional sets or units. This idea seems to be directly supported by Narayana Guru. We find in the Upanishads many references to these pentads such as the pancagni or five-fold fires. Narayana Guru also accepts a double tired fivefold structure in his comparison of the Self to a revolving lamp hanging high and burning in shadow form.(See Verse 7 of the Atmopadesa Satakam).
The reference to functions inside the body could also be recognized as psycho-physical auscultations. In Verse 7 those activities are referred to as fundamental inner activities also capable being fitted into a structural pattern common to both physics and metaphysics. A schematism belonging to the whole series of verses, when recognized will be helpful in linking them under one master-discipline.
The exact number of pentads included in the series ranging from the function of the elementals to the highest intelligibles cannot be fixed even with the help of the Upanishads. Sankara, in his commentary on the Brahma Sutras (11.4.5) also mentions how in the Upanishads there are found differences in the exact number of pranas. In trying to solve this his reasoning is similar to the question one may ask of captain of a cricket team, "How many players do you have?" He can truthfully answer, "We have thirteen (including extras) but only eleven players at a time on the field". In the same way we can fix a higher number of pentads ranging from top to bottom and not fix the actual number. It will be sufficient to recognize the bottom items of the series as perceptual and operating within the body, while the top items are of a conceptual order operating within the universe. Both belong unitively together in the same scheme, with the absolute Self as the linking element. The numerical figures are better when not rigidly fixed.
Thus it is the "I" that links all grades of functional units of activity, from prime matter to the highest Good. This "I" runs through all mystical or spiritual values from the bottom to the top or vice-versa, eliminating the obnoxious distinction between obeying the "will of God" and one's own true will or voice within. In keeping with a unified Science of the Absolute they are treated here as interchangeable at all levels.
4. TRANSCENDING ACTION
Instead of rejecting all these presuppositions we find Badarayana accepting them. He does not deny the apurva but instead himself postulates a brahman or Absolute for his descending dialectical method. This is also supposed to produce freedom from suffering and spiritual emancipation. Throughout the Brahma Sutras we find this methodology belonging to the same context of Vedic ritualism. Jaimini wholly approves of ritualism, while Badarayana and Sankara tolerate it as useful at times and inevitable in many cases. It is at this point of the meeting of the two tendencies that the equation of karma and akarma has its meaning as a double-sided process involving a verticalized equation between the Self and the non-Self.
If the reader admits such an outline as plausible it will not be difficult to see that in this chapter Narayana Guru has only purified and verticalized the double dialectics involved, fitting it into a unified darsana for his own purposes. This answers the question why Narayana Guru has no longer any use for what is often talked about in the context of Indian spirituality as karma-yoga. The requirements of such a discipline are already implied here and Narayana Guru is satisfied with making a passing reference to karma-yoga in the Yoga Darsana and also in the Nirvana Darsana. Action in spirituality is a necessary evil.
Affiliated to reason one leaves behind here both meritorious and unmeritorious deeds. Therefore affiliate yourself to the unitive way (of Yoga); Yoga is reason in action". (5)
We read:
"That man whose works are all devoid of desire and wilful motive, whose (impulse of) action has been reduced to nothing in the fire of wisdom, he is recognized as a knowing person (pandit) by the wise. Just as fire when kindled reduces to ashes the fuel, 0 Arjuna, likewise the fire of wisdom reduces all works to ashes". (6)
The Gita also develops a much misunderstood teaching of desireless action known as nishkamakarma. Any wish for results belongs to the Purva Mimamsa. The Gita (XV.3) elsewhere unequivocally says one should first cut down the asvattha, representing the tree of holy relativistic value-systems of the context of Vedism.
5. ABSOLUTIST MYSTICAL EXPRESSION
ANUKAMPA DASAKAM
TEN VERSES ON MERCY
Such Mercy that even to an ant
Would brook not the least harm to befall,
0 Mercy-Maker, do vouchsafe with contemplation
Which from Thy pure Presence never strays.
2
Grace yields blessedness, a heart Love-empty
Disaster spells of every kind.
Darkness as Love's effacer and as suffering's core,
Is seed to everything.
3
Grace, Love, Mercy - All the three -
Stand for one same reality - Life's Star.
"He who loves is he who really lives" Do learn
These syllables nine by heart in place of lettered charm.
Without the gift of Grace, a mere body
Of bone and skin and tissue foul is man,
Like water lost in desert sand,
Like flower or fruit bereft of smell.
5
Those phases six that life do overtake
Invade not wisdom's pure domain;
Likewise the Mercy quality, when human form has gone
In good reputation's form here endures.
6
That dispenser of Mercy, could he not be that reality
Who proclaiming words of supreme import, the chariot drives,
Or compassion's ocean, ever impatient for all creation
Or even he who in terms clear non-dual wisdom, expounds, the Guru?
7
In human form here is He not a God
Or perhaps the Law of Right living in sacred human form?
Is He the pure begotten Son of the Lord Most High?
Or kindly prophet, Nabi, pearl and gem in one.?
8
Is he that soul personified who with holy ashes once
Fever chased away and many wonders worked?
Or yet the other of psychic power who, wandering in agony
Allayed his ventral distress even with song?
9
Else is he that sage of crowning fame who uttered once again
That holy script already known and writ in Hara´s name?
Or he devoted to the value of the Lord Supreme
Who here departed bodily ere life here from him was stilled?
Dispensing bounty here on earth and taking human form
Is He not that Kamadhenu Cow of all-providing Good
Dispensing bounty here on earth and taking human form,
The Deva-Taru which to each its gifts bestows?
ENVOI
Or meaning as by Guru taught,
And what mildly a sage conveys,
And wisdom's branches of every stage,
Together they all belong,
As one in essence, in substance same.
In the above verses it should be noted that Sankara, who is supposed to be primarily an intellectual, is alluded to as, "Or who in terms of clear non-dual wisdom expounds ...." The second selection refers pointedly to ahimsa. One cannot claim to carry the Lamb of God as a Good Shepherd on one's shoulders and have it on the table the next night without some sense of emotional conflict or contradiction. Even children understand this by the way they act when a favourite cock of the barnyard is served on the table.
The second poem is called Jivakarunya-Pancakam (Five Verses on Kindness to Life):
JIVA-KARUNYA-PANCAKAM
FIVE VERSES ON KINDNESS TO LIFE
All are of one Self-fraternity.
Such being the dictum to avow,
In such light, how can we take life,
And devoid of least pity go on to eat?
2
The non-killing vow is great indeed,
And greater still, not-eating to observe;
All in all, should we not say, O men of righteousness,
Even to this amounts the essence of all religions?
3
If killing came to be applied to oneself,
Who, as a favour, would treat such a dire destiny?
As touching all in equality, o ye wise ones,
Should that not be our declaration for a regulated life?
4
No killer would there be if no other to eat there was-
Perforce, himself must eat!
In-eating thus abides the cruder ill
In that it killing makes.
5
Non-killing makes a human good --
Else an animal's equal he becomes,
No refuge, has the taker of life,
Although to him all other benefits accrue.
8. CONCLUDING REMARKS
Instrumentalism puts the accent on the ontological side. When the balance is correctly struck between the two counterparts, the resulting activity will resemble various forms of contemplative Mysticism. Although its striking and overt expressions might help us to diagnose its true character, they do not directly indicate the content of its true absolutist activity. It is therefore contemplative activity of a subdued kind that we should think of in connection with the whole of this chapter. The non-Self is here compared to a silvery gleam superimposed on a mother-of-pearl.
Besides these features to be kept in mind, we have to notice that several grades of the Self are implied. The supreme Self (paramatma), the Self of pure reason and the senses (cittendriyatma), and the living Self (jivatma) have their places in an ascending scale beginning with the living Self and ending with the supreme Self. On final analysis the multiplicity of Selfs are not to be recognized, but to be laid at the door of Maya still hanging over from the ontological side. Any vestiges of horizontalism in a merely relational sense is in principle due to Maya. By a descending equation of the Self with the non-Self, Maya is finally abolished and all are cancelled out in the pure absolute Self. Perfect verticalization between the various concepts of the "I'' establishes a link between them which also vanishes. Finally, the levels used for linguistic communication are transcended and this is when we attain the pure Absolute in this chapter as in every other chapter as an integrating norm. We now give a summary of the verses of this chapter.
This first verse gives the central place to any nameable Self as a concept as soon as this chapter permits the author to take his position from the neutral to the positive one. The instrumental status of the Self is brought out by the reference to the multiplicity of actions as possible effects. All these effects are however supported by the instrumental Self as indicated from the expression bahurupadhrik (bearing many forms). Its self-sufficiency is underlined by the term svaprakasa (self-luminous), while its perfect aloofness or loneliness without any horizontal implications is like the Unmoved Mover and is underlined by the term asanga (detached). A pure verticalized version of the Self is thus indicated as a concept. This Self is to be equated with its counterpart as necessary to any discussion on contemplative activity.
Verse 2. Here the only point to be noted front Narayana Guru's own commentary is the sameness implied between the paramatma (Supreme Self) and the cittendriyatma (the Self of pure reason and the senses).
Verse 4. The ambiguous principle of incertitude necessarily acting as a link between the Self and the non-Self is found in this verse. It persists from the ontological side of negativity and encroaches into the domain of concepts.
The term aropyate (is attributed) suggests an agency on the part of Maya. This has to come from the side of the non-Self as a concept. It is a horizontalizing factor of nescience whose essence cannot belong to any other reality than the pure verticalized Self. The horizontal and vertical tendencies belong to the same Self, at least as references. It is this horizontal factor that is at the root of the multiplicity of things and their interactions. The vertical Self is always independent of such.
Verse 5. This verse refers to the attitude of the wise man (jnah) He has merely to recognize the verity of the fully verticalized status of the Self to be established correctly in the context of the Absolute. By this sort of detachment he remains without the blemish of pluralistic activities that might tarnish his pure Self, independent of all horizontal factors. The only impediment to such a pure state is the ignorance caused by Maya. Once this horizontal tendency is transcended, ignorance disappears.
The one (ekah) referred to is no other than the absolute Self. Here the wind and the river with its flowing movements can be thought of as belonging to complementary structural aspects; the wind being nailed, as it were, to the sky, and the flowing river to the solid earth. The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads faintly suggest such a structural elaboration.
The linking of the earth as supporter with the term atma is justified because of the rich ontological status of the earth in preference to the sky. Even the sky, when subjected to proper methodological reduction can be given a symmetrical parity with the earth as its negative counterpart.
Rain represents a central value as a beneficent quality blessing him that gives and him that receives. The Tirukkural of Tiruvalluvar also treats rain in this absolutist fashion independently of ends and means:
"Rain creates fit food for them that eat and is itself their food,
Should the sky run dry, there would be neither festivals nor worship (for the Gods) here." (10)
Verse 8. The cosmic process from a horizontalized perspective with its creation, subsistence and re-absorption going on eternally and cyclically is equated and abolished in favour of a verticalized version of the Self. Two spiral processes originating at the two poles should be imagined here. The term asti (is or exists) refers to the ontological, and vinasanam refers to the teleological. However this latter does not in reality refer to the Self.
Verse 9. This verse underlines the self-sufficiency and independence of the Self as conceived by a wise man (kovidah) standing independently, as it were, above all conceivable phenomena. The term kutastha (well-founded one, or rock fixed) clearly suggests this. The "I'' (aham) is really the supreme Self beyond all plurality found in the world of the intelligibles. As the supreme Self it represents the goal of all spiritual aspirations.
Verse 10. The second half of this verse finalizes the status of the Absolute understood on the plus side; while the first half detracts from its ontological reality. It is of the order of superimposition (adhyasa), in the sense that concepts are raised above sense data, revealing the empirical world. This high Self belongs to the metaphysical context which is repugnant to modern positivists and empiricists etc. and denounced as "nonsense". It is true that such a Self is not within the range of percepts but raised beyond even the plurality of concepts. Still its validity cannot be questioned if axiomatic thinking in which mathematics thrives is also acceptable to physicists for arriving at their laws and theories.
The terms ekah (one) and eva (even), however, make amends for what has been taken away from the full absolute status of this highest Self. It is further underlined by the terms adya (today) and svopi (as also tomorrow) attesting to its eternal character. This verse finally equates the highest Self backwards to the full status of the central normative Absolute.
By way of conclusion let us add that there is no direct reference in the text to mysticism. As we have said, mysticism is a by-product of the interaction of the Self with the non-Self. When a machine runs smoothly because of intelligent handling and care, no throbbing vibrations are produced. The instrumentalism intended by Narayana Guru belongs to such an order of pure participation between the Self and the non-Self. The examples of mysticism we have given are meant only to clarify structural and other implications of the possible manifold activity between the Self and the non-Self. When finally merged, in principle no action is possible. Action however has to be understood as a reality that cannot be overlooked as existing as a reality outside the vision of the Absolute.
Footnotes