Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/327

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BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE VEDANTA
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Duty. The author then confutes the Sankhya doctrine that Nature is the material cause of the universe, and declares that a sentient rational Being is the material as well as the efficient First Cause of the universe.

The second lecture continues the confutation of Kapila's Sankhya philosophy, as well as of Patanjali's Yoga system and Kanada's atomic theory. All the universe is rigidly assigned to Brahma, who is the Cause and the Effect.

The soul is active, not passive as the Sankhyas maintain, although its activity is merely adventitious, and it is in reality a portion of the Supreme Ruler, while the corporeal organs and the vital actions are all modifications of Brahma.

The third lecture treats of transmigration of souls, of the attainment of knowledge, of final emancipation, and of the attributes of the Supreme Being. The soul transmigrates, invested with a subtle body, from one state to another. Departing from one body, it experiences the recompense of its works, and returns to occupy a new body with the resulting influence of its former deeds.

The Supreme Being is impassable, unaffected by worldly modifications, as the clear crystal, seemingly coloured by the hibiscus flower, is really pellucid. He is pure Sense, Intellect, Thought.

The reader will perceive that the Vedanta philosophy is a direct and legitimate result of the Upanishads, and the idea of unity is carried to its extreme limit in the Vedanta as in the Upanishads.