doctrine from the Gîtâ or the Upanishads, yet each differing remarkably from the other[1].' Since this was written, Professor Max Müller's Hibbert Lectures have been published. And I am happy to find, that as regards the Upanishads, his view coincides exactly with that which I have expressed in the words now quoted. Professor Max Müller says: 'There is not what may be called a philosophical system in these Upanishads. They are in the true sense of the word guesses at truth, frequently contradicting each other, yet all tending in one direction[2].' Further corroboration for the same view is also forthcoming. Professor Fitz-Edward Hall, in a passage which I had not noticed before, says[3]: 'In the Upanishads, the Bhagavadgîtâ, and other ancient Hindu books, we encounter, in combination, the doctrines which, after having been subjected to modifications that rendered them as wholes irreconcileable, were distinguished, at an uncertain period, into what have for many ages been styled the Sânkhya and the Vedânta.' We have thus very weighty authority for adhering to the view already expressed on this important topic. But as Professor Weber appears to have expressed an opinion[4] intended perhaps to throw some doubt on the correctness of that view, it is desirable to go a little more into detail to fortify it by actual reference to the contents of the Gîtâ, the more especially as we can thus elucidate the true character of that work. Before doing so, however, it may be pointed out, that the proposition we have laid down is one, the test of which lies more in a comprehensive review of the whole of the Gîtâ, than in the investigation of small details on which there is necessarily much room for difference of opinion.
And first, let us compare that indisputably systematized work, the current Yoga-sûtras[5], with the Bhagavadgîtâ on one
- ↑ See the Introductory Essay to my Bhagavadgîtâ, translated into English blank verse, p. lxvii. See also Goldstücker's Remains, I, 48, 77; II, 10.
- ↑ 8:2 p. 317; cf. also p. 338.
- ↑ Preface to Sânkhya Sâra, p. 7 (Bibl. Indic. ed.)
- ↑ History of Indian Literature, p. 28.
- ↑ Are we to infer from the circumstance mentioned in Weber's History of Indian Literature (p. 223, note, 235), that the author of these Sûtras was older than Buddha?
