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CHAPTER IX
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF
That is why the Upanisada have an
important place in the philosophy of the Absolute Self. Much
attention had been paid in India in ancient times to the
question of concentrating the mind, and there was developed
in our country an independent science on that subject which is
known as the ( Patanjala ) Yoga science. Those venerable
Rsis who, being experts in that science, had besides minds
which were naturally very pure and broad, have described in
the Upanisads the experience gained by them by introspection
about the nature of the Atman, or all that with which their
pure and peaceful minds were inspired. Therefore, for drawing 1
any conclusion about any Metaphysical principle, one cannot
but refer to these Sruti texts [1]. One may find
various arguments which support and justify this self-
experience according to one's own acumen ; but thereby,
the authoritativeness of the original self-experience does not
suffer. It is true that the Bhagavadgita is a Smrti text;
but, I have explained in the very beginning of the first chapter,
that it is considered to be as authoritative in the matter as the
Upanisads. I have, therefore, in this chapter first explained
with authorities, but simply— that is, without giving reasons —
the doctrines propounded in the Gita and in the Upanisads
about this unimaginable Substance which is beyond Matter,
and I have considered later on in the chapter in what way
those theories can be scientifically supported.
The Bhagavadgita does not accept the Samkhya dualism
of Matter and Spirit, and the first doctrine of the philosophy
of the Absolute Self in the Gita, as also in Vedanta, is that
there is at the root of the moveable and immoveable world, a
third Principle which is all-pervading, imperceptible and
imperishable, and which is beyond both Matter and Spirit.
Although the Samkhya Prakrti is imperceptible, it is quality full
(saguna), because, it is composed of the three constituents. But
whatever is quality full is perishable. Therefore, that something
else which, being imperceptible, still survives after this
quality full imperceptible Matter has been destroyed, is the real
and permanent Principle of the entire Cosmos — as has been
stated in the Gita in the course of the discussion on Matter and
Spirit in the stanza [2] quoted at the beginning of this
chapter ; and later on, in the fifteenth chapter, after referring
to the Mutable and the Immutable — the Perceptible and the
Imperceptible — as the two Samkhya elements, the Gita says : —
uttamah purusas tv anyah paramatmety udahrtah I
yo lokatrayam avisya bibharty avyaya isvarah II
that is, "that Purusa, which is different from both these (Matter
and Spirit) is the Super-Excellent, the One which is known as
the Absolute Atman, the Inexhaustible and the All-Powerful ;
and, pervading the three-sphered universe, It protects it."
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