A compendium of the Raja Yoga philosophy / comprising the principle treatises of Shrimat Sankaracharya and other renowned authors.

  • Śaṅkarācārya
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A compendium of the Raja Yoga philosophy / comprising the principle treatises of Shrimat Sankaracharya and other renowned authors. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    separate trees in a forest, aud universal space, is of the same nature; they are both pure ether; and so Bramha and in- dividuated spirits are one; they are both pure life. That wisdom by which a person realizes that individuated spirit and Bramha are one, is called Tattwa-gnana, or the knowledge .of realities. Bramha, the governor, or director of all things, is ever-living, unchangeable, and one ; this inanimate, diversified, and change- able world, is his work. Governors are living persons ; the dead cannot sustain this office ; every species of matter is with- out life ; that which is created cannot possess life. This com- parison is drawn from secular concerns ; and thus, according to the Vdda, all life is the creator, or Bramha; the world is inani- mate matter. All material bodies, and the organs, are inani- mate ; the appearance of life in inanimate things arises from their nearness to spirits : in this manner, the chariot moves because of the presence of the charioteer. That through the presence of which bodies and their members are put in motion, is called spirit. He is the first cause; the ever-living ; the excellent God, besides whom there is none else. Therefore, in all the shastras he is called Vishw&tma ; the meaning of which is, that he is the soul of all creatures.e This is the meaning of the whole of the Vddanta. Wherefore all [spirits] are one, not two; and the distinctions of I, thou, he, are all artificial existing only for present purposes, and through pride [Avidya]. Though a man should perform millions of ceremonies, this Avidy& can never be destroyed but by the kowledge of spirit, that is, by Bramhagn&na.f This Avidya is necessary to the e “ Thales admitted the ancient doctrine concerning God, as the animating principle or soul of the world.” Enfield, page 143. “ The mind of man, according to the Stoics, is a spark of the divine fire which is the soul of the world.” Ibid jjage 341. f Krishna, in the Bhagavat-gitA, thus describes the efficacy of the principle of abstraction : “If one whose ways are ever so evil serve me alone, he is as respectable as the just man. Those even who may be of the womb of sin ; women ; the tribes of vaishya shudra, shall go the supreme journey, if they take sanctuary with me.”