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CHAPTER IX
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF
This Maya is not a Real substance, and it is only the Parabrahman
which is Real, that is, uncircumscribed by Time, and
never-changing. These are the doctrines which relate to
the nature of the Names and Forms of the visible universe
and the Parabrahman clothed by them. Now, when the
human being is viewed from the same point of view, it is
seen that the human body and organs are substances defined
by Name and Form, like other substances in the visible world,
that is to say, that they fall into the category of the
non-permanent Maya ; and that the Annan, which is clothed
by this Body and organs, falls into the category of the
eternal Parabrahman ; or, that the Brahman and the Atman
are one and the same. My readers must have now noticed
the differences between these Non-Dualistic doctrines,
which do not look upon the external world as an independent
substance in this sense, and the Buddhistic doctrines,
Buddhists, who believe in the vijnana-vada, say that the
external world does not exist at all, and that Jnana
( Knowledge ) alone is Real : and Vedantists look upon only
the ever-changing Names and Forms of the external universe
as-unreal, and say that under these Names and Forms, as also
in the human body, there is, in both cases, one and the same
Atman-formed Substance; and that this homogeneous Atman-
Element is the ultimate Reality. In the same way, Samkhya
philosophy has accepted the synthesis of the diversity of
created things by the law of ' 'avibhaktam vibhaktesu," only so'
far as it applies to Gross Matter; but, as the Vedantists have
got over this difficulty of the satkaryavada. and established the
doctrine that "whatever is in the Body, is also in the Cosmos,"
the innumerable Purusas and the Prakrti of Samkhya
philosophy have, in Vedanta, philosophy, been comprised in
one Paramatman by the principle of Non-Dualism (advaita)
or Non-Division ( avibhaga ). The purely Materialistic
philosopher Haeckel was, it is true, a Non-Dualist. But he
includes even Consciousness ( caitanya ) in Gross Matter, and'
Vedanta philosophy doeg not give pre-eminence to the Gross,
but proves that the immortal and independent' Thought-
Formed (cidrupi) Parabrahman, which is uncircumscribed
by Time or Space, is the Fundamental Boot of the world : this-
is the most important difference between the Non-Dualism of
of the philosophy of the Absolute Self and the Gross-Non-
Dualism (jadadvaita) of Haeckel.
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