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CHAPTER IX
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF
The subject- matter of Materialistic philosophy is perceptible to the organs,
whereas that of the philosophy of the Absolute Self is beyond
the organs, that is, it is self -perceptible, or something which
one oneself alone can realize. It may be argued that if the
Atman is self-perceptible, then let each person acquire such
knowledge of it as he himself can : where is the use of the
philosophy of the Absolute Self? This objection will be
proper, if the Mind or the Conscience of each man were equally-
pure. But, as we know by experience that the purity or-
strength of everybody's mind is not the same, we have to-
accept as authoritative in this matter the experience of only
those persons whose minds are extremely pure, clean, and
broad. There is no sense in carrying on a foolish argument
that ' I think like this' or 'you think like that ' etc. Vedanta
does not ask you to abandon logic altogether. All that it says
is that since the subject-matter of the philosophy of the
Absolute Self is self-perceptible, that is, as it is not capable
of discernment by Materialistic methods, those arguments,
which are inconsistent with the personal and direct
experience which supermen, possessing an extremely pure,
clean, and broad mind, have described regarding the Absolute
Self, cannot be taken as correct in the consideration of that
philosophy. Just as in Materialistic sciences, inferences incon-
sistent with physical experience are considered useless, so in
the philosophy of the Absolute Self, personal experience or some-
thing which one's Atman has realized is considered of higher
value than technical skill. That teaching which is consistent
with such self-experience is acceptable to the Vedantists.
Srimat Samkaracarya has laid down this very principle in
his commentary on the Vedanta-Sutras, and those who wish
to study the philosophy of the Absolute Self must always
bear it in mind. There is an ancient saying that :-
acintyah khalu ye bhava na tains tarkena sadhayet I
prakrtibhyah param yat tu tad acintyasya laksanam II
that is, " one should not, by mere imagination or inference,,
draw conclusions about those objects on which it is impossible-
to contemplate as they are beyond the reach of the organs ;
that substance which is beyond Matter, ( which is the
fundamental substance of the entire universe ), is. in this way,
incapable of contemplation " ; and this stanza has been,
adopted in the Mahabharata [1] and also in
the commentary of Sri Samkaracarya on the Vedanta-Sutras,
but with the reading ' yojayet ' instead of 'sadhayet'. [2]. It is similarly stated in the Mundako-panisad and the Kathopanisad, that knowledge of the Absolute Self cannot be got merely by imagination [3].
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